Michael Mathias - Kings, Queens, Heroes, and Fools

“Hurry, light,” said Spike.

“I’m falling apart,” Hyden replied out loud, thinking that the lyna didn’t understand, or care. Spike’s response surprised him.

“The light can save you.”

“Aye,” Hyden grunted, remembering the White Goddess saying something similar to him. In a rush of determination he focused his gaze on the illumination and pushed his pace. What the glowing speck in the distance was, he had no idea, but he told himself he would get there before the thing behind him caught up, or he would die trying.

The long grueling hours of practice that Mikahl pushed himself through every morning paid off in one quick instant. He was on his knees at the edge of the water in grass that was as tall as his shoulders. The waterline was completely hidden, for the grass grew out of the water, as well as on the muddy bank. Mikahl was splashing handfuls of cool liquid up into his burning eyes. He didn’t see the wide swath of grass parting as an ancient snapper slithered toward him. His splashing masked any noise it might have made, except the exploding roar as it shot its huge bulk up out of the water at him.

Mikahl’s lightning quick reflexes and brute strength allowed him to use the snout of the huge beast as it came down at him. He pushed himself just out of the snapping jaws and rolled away through the muck as fast as he could. For once he was glad not to have his chain mail on. If he had been wearing it, the marsh monster’s teeth would have surely caught in it.

He could barely see as the low-bodied gator ran at him across drier ground. Its mouth was a gaping pink smear against a darker background. It was huge. He could tell that it was big enough to bite him in half if it got a hold of him. He jabbed Ironspike at the thing and the sharp blade dug into the roof of the creature’s mouth. It stopped its charge then and backed away hissing. Mikahl could barely see it, but he took advantage of the snapper’s hesitance and charged. He waved Ironspike around menacingly until the big creature turned and slithered back into the water in search of an easier meal.

It took a long while for Mikahl’s thundering heart to slow down. It took even longer before he felt that he could see well enough to chance the bright horse again. By the time he made it back to Lakeside Castle to look for Phen, the sun had long since sunk beyond the ocean. It came as no surprise to find that Phen was nowhere to be seen.

Through the night, Mikahl waited for Phen to show himself. He sat on the balcony of Queen Shaella’s bedchamber looking out over the destroyed garden area where he’d left the boy. He called his name every so often, but there was no reply. He even walked the corpse strewn yard using Ironspike’s light to search the bodies. He didn’t find Phen, but he learned that Shaella’s head and body were no longer there. He was woken from a nap he’d fallen into when someone started banging on the door to Shaella’s chamber. He used all the shields and guards he could find in Ironspike’s symphony and then threw open the door ready to fight. What he found was a trembling young zard girl.

At that moment Mikahl realized something: Westland was still full of zard. He couldn’t just vent his rage and start killing skeeks, though. He looked over the zardess and saw a trio of others at the end of the long, wide entry hall. Two skeeks were guarding a human woman. The woman took a step back and her hand lifted to cover her mouth. Mikahl vaguely recognized her as Lady Able of Eastwatch.

“It’s true, then?” she asked through tears of joy. Almost immediately, her shoulders squared and she shoved her way past the two startled lizard-men who were guarding her. Her walk was dignified and she held her head proudly as she strutted toward Mikahl. When she neared the door she spoke to the young zard girl. Her voice, though tender, had a cold edge to it. “Tell your kind to leave the castle at once, Fslandra,” she said. “Your Dragon Queen is dead,” she looked at Mikahl for confirmation of the fact. He nodded. “The zard have no place here anymore. Tell them, Fslandra. Go.”

Mikahl was dumbfounded. He wasn’t ready for this. “M’lady,” he said to Lady Able. “Leave them be for now. Come, I will take you to a place that is safe.” A thought occurred to him. “Are there any others who need to be escorted to safety?”

She looked at him as if he were mad. “The people of Westland don’t need to be escorted anywhere, they need their king.” She looked him in the eyes and her expression deflated. “You’re not here to take back our kingdom?”

“Soon, m’lady,” he said, feeling awkward and foolish for not expecting to be needed in such a way by these people. “There’s only myself and this.” He indicated Ironspike’s softly glowing blade. “I cannot defend the entire kingdom alone.”

She nodded understanding. “I’ll fetch the girls then.”

Girls? Mikahl wondered what he was getting into.

A glance back down the hall revealed that the two zard guards and the young zardess had fled.

Mikahl hoped that Phen was all right. He’d given the boy plenty of opportunity to rejoin him. The idea that maybe the priest or the dragon had done the boy harm crossed Mikahl’s mind, but if that were the case, there wasn’t anything he could do about it. He had faith that Phen was capable of taking care of himself. King Jarrek and the eastern army needed him. He needed sleep, and time to think too. He didn’t really have time to be carrying women to safety on his magical stead. At least that’s what he was telling himself when three young girls ranging from two years to maybe seven came scurrying into the chamber. Each one of them was a bit smaller and more afraid than the last. They looked terrified just to be in Mikahl’s presence, and suddenly, getting these teary-eyed angels to safety was the only thing Mikahl could think about. To his surprise another face, one he recognized, and the huge bosom that went with it, came into the room with Lady Able. A pair of nervous servant men carrying large kitchen knives followed protectively.

Missy, the kitchen girl whose breasts were so large that they were often spoken of around campfires all over the realm, gave him a dirty-faced smile, and then went to herding the young girls into a tight group.

Not long after, Mikahl, with two tiny bodies in front of him, and the third slip of a girl clinging to his back as if her life depended on it, rode the bright horse off of the balcony and began winging their way eastward. Mikahl had promised Lady Able and Missy that he would return when he could. He explained that there was an army waiting on him in Dakahn and that he would have to stop there for a time. The two men understood and one of them went down to the kitchens to get more supplies in case they had to hole up in the chamber for a few days. Mikahl waited until he returned and was glad to see that a few more castle folk had joined the group.

During all of this, Phen lay down in the bailey yard, half under a shrub at the corner of the garden with Talon nested on his chest. The High King had passed them by half a dozen times through the night but hadn’t seen them because they were invisible. Even if they’d been conscious, neither Phen nor the hawkling could have moved. Before flying away on the back of the black dragon, the last red-robed priest had turned both of them to stone.

Escott, commanding the fifteen thousand troops sent to Oktin, had taken the city the day before Queen Willa and King Granitheart arrived. Now a force that was over thirty thousand strong was turning south to march toward O’Dakahn. The first night they made camp was the only night they met any resistance. The huge gorax demon came stomping through the encampment in the predawn hours and killed nearly a thousand men with its brutal club and potent spells. But the great black-chested beast was only passing through.