Nicholai waits until three more arrows hit the target. One comes very close to hitting me in the eye. He stands up, still holding me and charges towards a storage shed. I bounce in his arms, looking over his shoulder. A giant, brown bird with yellow eyes, and a white stripe down its wings dives towards us.
“Ca-Caw!” it shouts.
A bolt of lightning hits the ground behind us. Nicholai yells and falls over, dropping me.
“Oof!” I say as I hit the ground. Nicholai hisses as he brings one of his legs to his chest. I crawl to him and smell something burning.
Whiz!
An arrow flies past me. Nicholai grabs me, hits the ground and rolls, nearly crushing me in the process. Two more arrows fly over us, along with a gush of fire.
Nicholai stands, limps to the shed, opens the door and rushes in. He drops me and slams the door shut. It’s very dark inside, but I can still see where Nicholai is as he pushes a barrel full of weapons in front of the door. He picks me up once again, and carries me to the back of the shed, knocking down everything behind us-I guess to make it harder for the men to follow us.
Once we reach the back, Nicholai reaches down and opens a trap door and climbs in, still carrying me. The door leads to a tunnel, a very dark one too. I begin trembling.
“Nicholai, I’m scared,” I whisper.
“It’s alright, Cai,” Nicholai promises as he holds me close and limps through the tunnel, wincing with every step, still carrying me on his hip.
“Who are those elves?”
He doesn’t answer. He keeps walking. It’s not very long before we make it to the end, and Nicholai slowly climbs up a ladder, hissing every now and then. We reach the top and he pushes open the door to the outside.
“Oh, no,” Nicholai whispers. I can’t see anything at first, the light is too bright, but it feels a lot hotter now than it did before. As I get used to the light I gasp. The entire training grounds are on fire! And the crop fields! And the orchards! The roamers and the peasants are all running about, screaming. The cattle, sheep, and goats scramble about while screeching loudly, trampling people as they panic.
Three of the elf men and three red birds are blasting fire in every direction. One point of a finger, one flap of a wing and circles of grass burst into flames. Two of the elf men are shooting arrows into the crowd. Some of them scream in pain as the arrows hit them, but keep running. Others just fall over...and don’t get back up. A red bird sends a blast of fire towards a cow. The cow catches fire and begins kicking, rolling, and yelling in pain.
The last man is standing doing nothing, a lion-beast with a beak and wings standing next to him. I look towards the castle, clutching Nicholai’s neck as he holds me. At the top of the wall, I can see some of the guards running to reach the steps down.
Horns are blowing.
Bells are ringing.
Nicholai turns and takes off running again, though not as quickly as once before and still with a limp. I cling to him and look over his shoulder. All of the elves and their animals have spotted us and are running after us! Two of them pull out bows and arrows and begin shooting at us again. I duck as the arrows whiz by us, squeezing my eyes shut. A fast blast of air and a sharp pain race past my ear. I cry and grab it, touching blood. Nicholai runs back towards a field of tall grass, drops down to his knees, and sets me on the ground.
“Nicholai, this isn’t a good hiding-”
“Cai, listen to me,” Nicholai whispers between breaths, sweat pouring down his face. “I need you to crawl through here back to the castle, just like you and Axellia did when you came to sneak up on me, alright?”
“What about you?”
“I’m going a different way. You just get back to the castle, and no matter what happens, don’t stop.”
I’m so scared I feel like crying, but I don’t. I only nod.
“Good,” Nicholai nods as he ruffles my hair. He grabs my chin, and looks right in my eyes.
He looks really scared now.
“No matter what happens, keep crawling.” He kisses my forehead, stands, and runs back towards the men, drawing out his sword before he disappears through the grass.
I turn and begin to crawl away back towards the castle. I can hear shouts and clanging swords, but I keep crawling, just like Nicholai told me to. Two arrows whiz over me. The ground shakes as the zapping noise of lightning burns my ears and blinds me with its light. My hands tingle. I can’t feel them but I keep crawling. Tiny drops of blood follow me as they trickled down my face from my cut ear. But I don’t look back.
A loud yell fills the air. Chills pour down my back. I’ve heard screams of pain, shouts of anger, and other fighting noises, but nothing like that. Forgetting everything, I stand to see what’s going on, only to find a giant wall of fire eating up the grass and headed straight towards me. I scream and try to run, but my feet won’t move. The fire grows closer and closer and then…
…it disappears. Two white lines of light twisting around each other appear at the bottom of the flames and then begin moving up the wall of fire. They climb up, up, and up, wiping out the flames as they do so, like an eraser on a chalkboard. Soon there’s nothing but the glowing white lines, dancing in the air.
The elf men who were chasing me and Nicholai have stopped. They just stare at the lines, mouths dropped open. Some of the people who were working in the orchard begin wandering closer to the light, mouths agape.
“What is this?” One of the elves gasps.
The line drops from the sky and lands in front of them. It bursts into white flames, catching all close to it on fire. There is no warning, no slow-burning . One moment they’re fine and the next they're screaming and crying only a second before their bodies are nothing more than black bones. The fire lasts only a few seconds, then disappears, leaving nothing but black ash, stone, and bones behind. Screams of terror shake the ground, I look about. Some of the people who were not as close are still badly burnt. Black, smoking, crying. One woman no longer has an arm, just a black stump. A man’s entire face has been burned away. One boy no longer has feet.
A scream comes from behind me, I turn and see a girl, a little younger than Nicholai, standing behind me. She has black hair, silver eyes, and a pair of brown eagle wings growing from her shoulders. She must be a part of the Roamer group Nicholai and I saw earlier. A group of other Roamers are behind her, most with wings, but some without. She just stares at the bones, shaking and screaming. I want to scream with her, but I can’t.
An older man with the same wings as the girl, rushes forward and grabs her arm. He spreads out his wings and takes off to the sky. The other Roamers follow him, those without wings are lifted up by their friends.
I watch them fly off until they disappear, then turn back to where the men’s bones are, expecting to see Nicholai standing there, but he’s gone.
Where is he? I begin to run towards the bones, gagging at the smell. I feel like I’ll be sick, but I keep running.
“Nicholai! Nicholai!” The bones are stacked on top of each other, still hissing as the wind cools them. I try to tiptoe through them, but I trip. The bones crack as I fall, snapping under my weight. I scream and try to get up, but my hands and feet are all tangled in ribs and fingers. Every time I stand up, I trip again. A peasant boy, older than me but younger than Nicholai runs up to me. He pulls a ribcage off me and then reaches out a hand towards me.
“Prince Cai!” I look up to see a guard running towards me. He pushes the boy aside and picks me up to my feet. “Are you alright, Sir?”
“Yes,” I answer, “But where’s Nicholai?”
The guard doesn’t answer, he only stares at me. I look behind him and find a growing circle of people gathering around something. I run off to see what it is they are looking at.
“Prince Cai!” the guard calls as I squirm my way between the legs of those in the middle of the circle.
I stop and my whole body goes numb.
Nicholai is lying on his back, his eyes staring blankly at the sky. His armor is bent and twisted so bad that I almost can’t tell that there used to be a hydra on it. Holes are stuck through the metal, and a puddle of red is growing underneath him.
“Someone call a healer!” I yell as I run to Nicholai’s side, putting my hands over one of the holes in his armor to stop the bleeding, the cracked metal cutting my fingers.
“He’s hurt!”
Nobody moves. They all just stare at me. My hands begin shaking. My eyes grow blurry. My throat hurts.
“Why isn’t anyone getting a healer?” I ask.
The guard from before pushes through the crowd and kneels down next to me. “A healer can’t fix this, Sir.”
Tears begin to roll down my cheeks. “So, go find someone who can.”
He hangs his head. “Nobody can fix this.”
I take a step back and look down at Nicholai. I wait for him to look at me, to smile, to tickle me, but he just lays there.
“Nicholai?” I ask as I bend down and poke his face.
Nothing.
“He’s gone,” the guard whispers as he sets his hand on my shoulder. “I’m so sorry.”
Gone? He can’t be gone. Nicholai wouldn’t leave me. I turn and look back at the guard. The guard tries to smile at me and squeezes my hand.
“But he’s not gone,” I say. “He told me…” tears roll down my face as I turn and look back at Nicholai.
“You told me you were going to tell me a story.”
“Prince Cai-”
“You promised, Nicholai!” I scream as I run and grab his shoulders, shaking him. The guard picks me up and walks off, back toward the castle. I fight to get away so I can run back to Nicholai. My hands are bleeding from the cuts left by Nicholai’s busted armor, smearing a dark red over the guard's orange tunic.
“You promised! You promised!”
The giant fence-like thing with spikes at the bottom rises up and a sea of guards and soldiers race out. Fredricks is at the front. He comes running from the castle towards us.
“I came as soon as I got the princess safety, what happened?”
“Get him inside,” the guard instructs as he hands me to Fredricks. Fredricks takes me into his arms, his face blank.
“Wha-” his face curls into a sad knot.
The guard opens his mouth to say something but he’s nearly knocked over as Mother rushes out of the castle doors, pushing past us. Father follows along behind her.
“My king and queen-” the guard tries to stop them, then turns back to Fredricks, practically pushing him. “Get him inside, now!”
Fredricks’ face melts into a look of horror. “Not Crown Prince Nicholai-”
“Go, for the sake of the Creator, man, go!” The guard shouts. Fredricks nods and races back into the castle as I kick and punch his arms, squeezing my eyes shut.
I hear the gate door open.
Mother screams.
Father howls.
The door slams shut.
“Let me go!” I scream as Fredricks carries me up the stairs. I try to fight, but he doesn’t let me go. Still I punch, slap, bite, do anything I can to get away until he drops me on a bed. My bed. I look around and see I’m in the nursery. Bebin is sitting on Axellia’s bed, rocking her back and forth.
Bebin sets her down and runs to me. “What happened?” she asks as she touches my ear. I wince in pain. Bebin all but rips my scarf off my neck, and I can see that it’s stained dark red. She holds it to my ear, and turns to Fredricks. “What-”
Fredricks sighs shakily, his face covered in his hands.
“Fredricks, what happened?” Bebin shouts.
Fredricks shakes his head.
“Don’t just stand there like a fool, tell me what happened!”
“Some kind of…some kind of elven assassin attack.”
Bebin gasps and turns to me. “Oh, my poor boy!” she cries as she blots my ear.
“Prince Nicholai has…” Fredricks makes some kind of choking noise.
The room goes quiet. Bebin’s face goes from a warm, glowing brown to an almost gray color. I ball my hands into fist, my stomach twists and burns as a nasty taste fills my mouth.
“Fredricks…?” Bebin asks, shaking.
Fredricks turns and looks at all of us, tears falling down his face. “Prince Nicholai…has fallen.”
I growl at Fredricks. Nicholai didn’t fall, and he isn’t gone. I punch my bed, jerking out of Bebin’s grasp, letting my bloody scarf hit my blanket. I bury my face in my pillow and began punching it. Again. And again.
Bebin gasps. “No,” she whispers.
“Nicholai fell?” Axellia asks.
I look up to find Fredricks and Bebin staring at her, looking almost afraid.
“How hard? Did it hurt him?”
“No, dear girl,” Bebin sits down on Axellia’s bed taking her hands into her large and warm ones.
“What Fredricks meant is-”
“Nicholai can’t fall!” I yell, throwing my pillow at Bebin. “He isn’t gone! He wouldn’t leave!”
“He didn’t have a choice, Cai,” Fredricks groans, covering his face again.
“Where did Nicholai go?” Axellia whispers. She looks scared.
“He didn’t go anywhere!” I scream.
Fredricks and Bebin ignore me. Fredricks bends down to Axellia’s level and puts a hand on her shoulder.
“Princess Axellia, you’re brother is dead.”
“What?” Axellia looks like she doesn’t understand.
“No, he’s not!” I yell, grabbing the lamb from the glass sheep and shepherd set on the table. I throw it across the room, shattering it upon the back wall.
“Cai…” Fredricks stands and walks towards me. I stand on my bed and kick the table, knocking both shepherds into the floor. Fredricks grabs me by the shoulder and turns me towards him. Before he can say anything, the door opens and Mother steps in. She looks like a ghost. Her skin, which is normally dark as night, is paling. She holds a bloody hand over her big belly where the new baby is.
“Cai?” she asks in a small voice, looking for us. “Axellia?”
“They’re alright, Your Highness,” Bebin says as she stands and brings Axellia towards mother. She beckons for me to follow. “They’re both fine.”
I don’t move. I can’t. Fredricks picks me up and sets me next to Mother. Axellia stares up at her with big sad eyes, her bottom lip trembling. I turn and look at the floor. I don’t want to look at either of them, so I look at the glass shepherds on the floor. The boy’s head has been cracked. The girl’s head is completely gone, lying face down at her feet.
“Is it true, Mother?” Axellia asks. “Is Nicholai-”
Mother falls to her knees and sobs. Axellia cries too, throwing her arms around Mother. I just stand there. I’m not crying. I can’t hug them. I can’t look at them. I stare even harder at the two shepherds.
The boy stares back at me, smiling through the crack going down his face. Why does he get to smile and be happy in all of this? I grit my teeth and stomp on him, again and again until he’s nothing but dust under my boot. Fredricks and Bebin stare at me but don’t try to stop me as I throw myself back onto my bed and hide under the blankets.
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