Aurelie held a hand over Niendry's shoulder and she looked up. Her cheeks had been tear-stained and a black pasty substance smudged under her eyes. Niendry placed a hand over Aurelie's and pressed her cheek against it.
"The only damn reason I came here was for her," she said and sniffed, wiping at her eyes. The black paste smudged across her cheek with the stroke of her hand. "I can't believe she's gone."
"I'm sorry I couldn't protect her better." Valice's blood seeped through Aurelie's shoes, and she looked down to see that Niendry had been sitting in a pool of it the whole time.
"She was the last," she whispered. "The very last. We'll never see another like her as long as we live."
"Imagine what she felt like being alone among us." Aurelie bent down to take Niendry by her elbow and pulled her up. "Come on now. Her killers await beyond those walls."
Niendry's eyes ignited with a new fierceness. There was a cling of metal behind them and then a sudden gasp. Both women turned to find the last enemy fall to the blade of Niendry's corpse soldiers.
"I could awaken her too, you know," Niendry said and her lips twitched while she observed the castle's watchtowers.
"Let her rest. She deserves it." Nothing would satisfy her more than seeing those witches gape at the risen dragon, but Valice had been hovering around the earth for too long. It was time that her body and her soul both rested.
Niendry nodded and took Aurelie's hand. "Come on, Your Majesty."
"Don't resurrect me," Aurelie said and her words brought Niendry to a halt. "Not even if they beg you to."
To their left, horses galloped toward the castle. They held dark blue banners with hooks and rods as sigils. Aurelie smiled at first, thinking that Ja'on had brought his men to fight for her, and then realized what he must have truly brought his men for.
The few men that remained outside the castle walls raised their shield and held tightly to their swords.
Aurelie let go of Niendry's hand and approached them, stopping behind the shield of one of her soldiers.
"Prince Ja'on," she said, keeping her eyes stern and focused on him, "I hope you have not come to assist my enemy."
Their armor was fine and possibly new, and the look on the men's faces showed that they had not been prepared for battle, or ever present in one. Their eyes kept finding the floor where hundreds of bodies lay trampled and bleeding.
The Prince moved to the front. He stopped short and bowed. "No, we have come to assist you."
Aurelie smiled sharply and knowingly. "Turn back, Prince Ja'on. Let us not speak about your arrival here again."
The Prince lowered his head and turned back to his men. He lifted a finger and spun it around in the air, and his men grabbed the reins of their horses again. Aurelie clenched her jaw as he climbed back onto his horse, and took a quick glance and the fire rising from the castle walls.
"To the castle," Aurelie ordered the men who had been gathered outside. "Victory is close. Try to leave prisoners now. Make them surrender to us. There's been enough death."
"Aurelie!" Niendry shrieked.
Aurelie turned and saw a single red rose drop slowly to her feet. Ja'on's expression was that of utter confusion. He furrowed his brows and look from the flower to her. He must have done this three times before, reaching into his coat.
He looked at her once more, and the soft-spoken, overly-friendly man she'd know disappeared before her eyes and was replaced by a hateful hungry dog. Aurelie reached into her own coat and turned cold. It was stuck in her grandfather's chest.
A shriek came from the mid-line of his army stole his attention for a moment.
Aurelie felt the ground beneath her feet stir. It became softer and parted slightly. At first, it looked like a little ant hill and then it grew bigger.
Niendry came to stand closer by her side, and pulled on her sleeve, signaling that they should leave. Ja'on had turned back around and watched her like a hawk with his hand in his hand now clenched around his weapon.
Aurelie felt something tickle her ankle but she dared not look down, she knew exactly what it was and she didn't want to give Jermyn away just yet. His sprout reached her knee as another shriek came. Then another.
Within a second, the horse started to either run or fall. The entire field started to part as if an army of moles had been climbing to the surface. A thick vine lurched from the ground like an aggravated snake and grabbed the nearest of Ja'on's men by the throat before knocking him down.
Aurelie's foot sunk into the soft soil next to Jermyn's tiny sprout and she finally knew that she had to move.
Ja'on had his eye on the ground, dagger at the ready. His eyes were wild and terrified.
Good, you bloody traitor! she thought gleefully before Niendry pulled her away with the strength of two men. Aurelie hopped behind her, taking large strides to regain her balance.
"We'd better move before those things catch us too."
"They're our allies."
Aurelie followed Niendry toward the castle and at the same time looked back. The field was covered in sprouting flowers, their bulbs, perhaps twice the size of Aurelie's head. One opened, slowly at first, as if opening lovingly up to the sun to accept a ray of its light, and then it's stem stretched upward as if made of rubber, and opened itself up enough to reveal sharp thorny teeth. It swallowed one man whole before another chopped its head straght off.
"I'd rather they allied with us from a distance," Niendry said.
A piercing scream came from Aurelie's right. She saw a woman, with purple skin, smooth as a rose petal, weep for the falling flower. Her eyes were black as a popyseed and her green hair flowed wildly around her as if it too felt the loss of its own. On her head was a crown made of amber. The queen of the wild creatures glanced Aurelie's way, bowed her head in greeting, and grew dagger long thorns from her finger tips, they curved at the tips like those of a rose.
"I've been around for a good few years, Aurelie, and I've never seen one of those things die and release a soul."
The trees around them came alive. They grew legs and arms and crushed through ten men at a time.
A dark stripe lurched past the corner of her vision. Aurelie turned and saw a hooded figure climb the wall of the castle where no men had gathered. Quick and steady as a cat, the man found his place at the top of the thick wall and ducked, reaching back to his quiver. He pulled out an arrow. Nothing fancy like that of royal guards, but a simply steel arrowhead and a carved stick. The man had been a distance away, so Aurelie could not tell for certain but she had seen Daerious plenty of time to know the swift and careful flow of his movements.
He pulled back on the string of the bow, shoulder pulled back and eye in line with the arrow. For old time's sake, Aurelie set the tip of the arrow alight, and watched it fly down into the grounds.
*****
Aurelie made it past the whirl of spells and cluster of swords, and ran up the steps of the castle where moments ago, she had seen Kaiden and the commanders' advance. She left Niendry to chase after Daerious. That was a romance Aurelie wanted no part in.
The common room had a statue of Lukas in the very center. He had a sword pressed against his chest and a large crown atop his head. Just as Aurelie entered, the statue toppled backward, and a ghastly laugh passed through the Halbrook witches who had knocked it down with the help of an unruly wind that had Aurelie's hair flutter.
"Careful with that," she scolded the witch.
She took a left turn, and found herself in the dining hall. It had been empty and so she pressed on through the grand open door. Before she entered, she heard Lukas' voice and stopped in her tracks.
"I surrender. I surrender," he squealed like a little child.
All her grief came out with the sound of his voice, and her knees failed her. She sat down quietly and sobbed while he pleaded with her men. The grey fog that had lived inside and around her faded and her gaping wounds stung and crippled her. She remembered the dream, the grey covering her body, filling her mouth and eyes. That empty feeling that throbbed in her chest then, was present now. The end came and she won. But nothing came from it but the death of thousands of men, Valice and she did not want to find out whom else because she had no space inside her for more grief.
"I wanted none of this. My advisers, they wanted me to show strength. I did not want war. It was never meant to escalate like this."
"Tie him up," Kaiden said, his voice sounded tired and hoarse from shouting orders. "Can someone find the Queen?"
Aurelie backed up against the wall. She did not want to see Lukas. She would kill him and that would bring her nothing but emptiness. Footsteps rang near her and she backed up against the wall. Aurelie caught her breath and sat still as a statue, hoping that whoever it was would pass.
Kirin stopped short and turned to her. He gave her his hand, his face blank. She took it but didn't stand just yet.
"Where the hell were you?" she asked him, wiping a tear from her eye.
"Trying to get to him," he looked at the wall through which the two of them could still hear Lukas's whimpers, as if he wanted to burn a hole through it.
"Fantastic job," she said. "You did a lot with your head start, I see." Aurelie hid her anger behind the sarcasm, but he could tell how angry she was. It was clear in the way his demeanor suddenly softened.
"They told you to stay out of the fight. I delivered you to them so that they would keep you out of the fight."
Aurelie narrowed her eyes, and let go of his hand. "Delivered me." She scoffed, getting up slowly. Sitting down for that split second made her realize just how out of it she was. Everything hurt and she would have glady just fallen asleep where she sat. "Oh you know me so well, don't you?"
"Did you want me to save you?" he asked her.
"I don't want you to do anything," Aurelie said, and tried to walk past him. He stepped sideways and stopped her in her tracks. Inhaling, she looked up at him. "What do you want?" she whispered, noticing the lack of feeling in her own voice.
It must have been clear to him too. "I'm sorry," he said.
"For what?"
"For not being there. For trying to kill you. For whatever else you remember me doing."
She smiled, warming up to him instantly. It never took him much effort to make her anger melt away. "I have a list."
"Of course, you do," he said. Cupping her face in his hand, Kirin gently pushed her chin up so that she would look at him, there was a sense of loss in his eyes. He was tired too. Aurelie embrassed him. All her feelings flooded back. She felt warm. She felt home. In that cold, empty castle where no living thing could feel love or joy, she felt at home, because he was there.
Lukas' wept louder, but she no longer heard Kaiden speak and wondered what the hell he was taking his time for. The sooner they dealt with him, the sooner they could go home.
"Let's finish this," she said softly, and pressed her head against his chest, hugging him tightly.