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[Rough Draft] Chapter 48: A Descent into Chaos
“And that blue one over there is a Mountain Blue Bird,” Hana said pointed off towards the trees that offered some relief from the sun as the caravan of knights, royalty, nobles, and servants made their way slowly towards the capital.
“What’s the difference?” Ivy asked as she raised a hand above her eyes. “Wait, the other ones had orange bellies.”
“Precisely,” Hana replied with a smile.
“But the Mountains are far from here,” Ivy protested.
“Not that far if you can fly,” Carina reasoned as she took studied the bird that flittered off over the forest of trees.
“I didn’t know you had a fondness for birds, Viscountess,” Captain Isaac observed from behind the trio.
Hana’s smile tightened even as she turned to reply. “The Duchy has an impressive library of books. After discovering one on birds, I became interested.”
“Shall I buy you some songbirds when we return to the capital?” Carina asked bemusedly. She had yet to grasp what it was between Hana and Isaac that made it seem like Isaac was constantly poking at the Viscountess, who responded civilly enough but could not hide her dislike.
“Oh, no!” Hana replied quickly. “No, I would rather observe them in their natural habitat. To be put in a cage—is a terrible fate.”
Carina opened her mouth to protest, then thought better of it and smiled in defeat.
“We could buy the birds already in captivity and free them around the Duchy,” Ivy suggested thoughtfully. “Then Lady Hana could feed them every morning in exchange for their songs.”
“That’s—a good idea,” Carina murmured and chuckled as Ivy beamed. “What do you think, Hana—”
A startled scream rippled through the air from the front of the caravan. Carina’s eyes snapped forward even as the knights around her instantly drew their swords and raised their shields.
“That scream came from the direction of the Crown Prince’s retinue,” the Duchess murmured tensely. With a glance at the knights around her, Carina pulled on the reins and guided her horse towards the outside road.
“Your Grace!” Isaac protested as he moved to follow.
“Captain, you will stay here and protect my ladies,” Carina replied sharply and turned towards the nearest Lieutenants she recognized. “Lieutenant Silas and Lieutenant Arlo, bring your men and follow me.”
“Protect the Duchess!” Isaac growled with evident frustration as the two Lieutenants glanced hesitantly towards him.
Carina didn’t wait for them to acknowledge her order as she kicked her heels into the white stallion’s flanks and galloped up the dusty road to where the caravan had come to a halt.
The flags of the Royal Knights teetered and then fell as a blaze of arrows came from the trees that surrounded them.
“Shields!” Beaumont’s voice roared above the momentary confusion.
A horse broke away from the royal carriage. Its dune-colored fur streaked with blood as it danced past Carina. It bucked and shied away from the knights that surged up behind the Duchess as Lieutenant Silas raised a shield to protect them both from the second round of arrows.
‘An ambush!? But from who?’
“Protect his Majesty!” Carina shouted to the knights behind her even. A loud feral cry rang out from the opposite embankment as a surge of armed men poured out of the trees directly towards the royal carriages.
Carina recognized the men. She had seen them numerous times through Lumi’s eyes. ‘But—why? What could the Marquess possibly have to gain by attacking now when his men are clearly outnumbered?’
“Where is Lieutenant Arlo?”
“To your left, your Grace,” Silas replied with a nod to the wave of knights that crashed directly into the approaching group of mercenaries.
The nobles who had been traveling close behind the royal carriages retreated into the waves of knights, who opened to provide a path of retreat even as they pressed forward. Arlo remained glued to Carina’s side while the rest of his knights quickly surrounded and passed them to form a line of defense as the second wave of mercenaries came at the royal carriage from the right.
Carina’s hands tightened around the reins as two familiar figures in red robes appeared behind this new assaulting force. The Fire Witches raised their hands and flung three fire bolts directly towards the royal carriage.
A surge of magic flowed from Carina’s chest into her arms and across the swarm of chaos. An ice wall rose like a shell around the road beside the trapped carriage and glowed as it engulfed the three fiery projectiles.
“Your Grace!” Arlo protested with a note of disbelief.
Carina lowered her hand, aware of the gaze of several nobles and their servants that fled past them behind Bastiallano’s knights. “Protect the King,” the Duchess said firmly as she drew her sword and pointed towards the enemy that had spread out to surround them. “Death to the Traitors!”
The royal carriage jerked and pulled forward at a rapid pace. A hole appeared beneath its front wheel, which wobbled precariously as the driver quickly whipped the team into a gallop. The royal knights followed, leaving Bastiallano’s knights to deal with the mercenaries.
Carina’s head whipped over the chaos around her, then focused on the two Fire Mages that broke off to follow Nicholas’s carriage with another group of thirty-some mercenaries close behind them.
“Lieutenant Arlo! We need to protect the caravan and the King!”
Arlo pulled a horn from his saddle and blew out three sharp notes. “My men and I will follow you, Duchess. Lieutenant Silas will protect the caravan.”
Carina nodded and urged her mount forward after the royal carriage. Her gaze pulled towards a cluster of knights gathered around a man kneeling on the ground. The image of Acheron’s agonized face as he clutched the Prime Minister in his arms flashed past—but not before Carina saw the arrow that had pierced Attwood’s chest. The Duchess clenched her teeth together as she twisted the reins in her hands and called Lumi.
***
The Duchess and her men gained ground quickly. Carina watched helplessly as the carriage, already on fire, turned suddenly off the road as the front wheel broke loose. The carriage flipped, taking out a mounted knight beside it as the mercenaries rode into the royal knight’s disheveled ranks.
“Protect the King!” Arlo roared. The knights behind them bellowed out a cry that turned the rear flank of the mercenaries as Carian blasted an icy path through their ranks towards the carriage.
Through the smoke, she saw Beaumont climb through the flames and rip the carriage door free. The knight captain dropped inside then emerged with Nicholas draped over his shoulder. A flash of flame whipped Carina’s attention towards the Fire Witches, who instantly targeted the Knight Captain and crown prince.
“Lumi!” Carian shouted as she erected another wall of ice between the witches and their target. A flash of white crashed into the injured witch and took him and his horse down in a blur of legs, screams, and fangs. The second witch looked down at his fallen comrade and summoned a giant ball of flames that he flung at the scriva. Lumi vanished before the ball of fire engulfed the fallen decapitated witch and his dead horse.
“Pin them down!” the Fire Witch screamed furiously. “Don’t let them escape!” The enraged witch quickly focused his attention on Carina as he sent two firebolts hurtling in her direction.
“Your Grace!” Arlo shouted, but Carian summoned two bolts of ice of her own and hurled them towards the Fire Mage’s attack. Ice engulfed fire as steam-exploded in the space between the two. Carina quickly pulled her crossbow up and loaded a bolt into it as the Fire Mage prepared his next attack. She pulled the trigger and followed the bolt with two weaker blasts of ice from her right hand.
The Fire Mage dodged the projectile, turned his horse towards the road, and took off as the conflicting spells clashed in the air behind him. As the mist settled, Carina realized he wasn’t running away but chasing after Beaumont and Nicholas, who now rode on horseback with another ten Royal Knights close behind them.
“Damn it!” Carina hissed as she grabbed her reigns and urged the pacing stallion after them. “Lieutenant!”
The Lieutenant’s horn blasted through the air even a scream arose from the burning carriage.
“The Consort!”
“Fuck!” Carina pulled back on the reigns and showered the carriage in a mist of ice, smothering the flames as best she could even as Royal Knight Lieutenant Olund climbed the burning carriage wheel and dropped inside the smoking transport. Bastiallano Knights hurriedly climbed up after him and helped pull the woman whose face and garments were streaked in red and black from the carriage.
The Duchess turned her gaze away from the unfortunate Consort and met Lieutenant Arlo’s gaze briefly before she continued after Captain Beaumont, Nicholas, and the Fire Mage.
‘It doesn’t make any sense. Would Borghese really subject his daughter to such a fate?’
She glanced back over her shoulder only once to confirm that Arlo and his men were behind her. A small portion of her knights had remained to assist the injured Consort, but there was little that could be done for the burns that now marred Priscilla’s face and body.
***
Despite the chaotic appearance of the ambush, Carina was not surprised to find that the bridge they had crossed on the journey to Gilwren was now broken and unusable. A group of mercenaries waited beside it and quickly surrounded Captain Beaumont, who yanked Nicholas from his horse even as the Fire Mage set the poor beast on fire.
The ten Royal Knights formed a hasty wall around their crown prince, but they were no match for the Fire Mage or the mercenaries’ arrows.
“Break through!” Carina cried out desperately as she summoned an ice lance to her hand and flung it towards the Fire Mage. The witch dodged the attack easily but peeled away as Arlo, and the knights barreled through the circle of mercenaries and surrounded the Royal Knights.
Refusing to allow her knights to become sitting targets for the Fire Witch, Carina continued to assail him relentlessly. Her attacks had a momentary effect until the Fire Witch set the ground beneath her on fire. The stallion reared sharply in panic, throwing Carina from its back with ease, given the Ice Witch’s hands had been preoccupied with magic.
The Duchess fell, coating herself in ice as she rolled through the flames, ignoring the ringing in her ears as she sucked in a breath and climbed determinedly to her feet. Her hands moved instinctively as she formed the bow and then the arrow and shot through the flames, over the head of her rising horse, into the surprised Fire Mage’s chest.
The man fell onto his back but quickly rose to his feet. Carina’s arrow melted in his hand as he snarled and turned towards her. The chaos of swords rang behind them as they filled the open field with fire, ice, and smoke, entwined in a dance that would only end when one of them was defeated.
The more fire her enemy rained down on her, the more ice Carina returned. She drove him steadily down the embankment towards the shattered bridge and the waiting, surging river. When he set the ground beneath her on fire again, Carina quickly smothered the flames and spread her ice magic across the entire field beneath them. Then wove her hands through the air and screamed out a blast of ice and wind, forcing the Fire Mage to raise a wall of flame to protect himself.
Carina smiled as she coiled a finger towards the river, summoning a tentacle of water that wrapped itself around the Fire Mage’s ankle, yanked him into the air, and submerged the startled, screaming witch below the waves.
With her heart hammering in her chest, Carina ran towards the water and spread out her hands. As the Fire Mage broke back through the surface, she froze a path of water towards him, trapping him in a block of ice up to his neck, still submerged inside the river.
The Fire Witch sputtered as his amber eyes blazed towards the ice-witch who walked along the frozen river towards him. “What—are you?”
“I am your captor,” Carina replied coldly as she drew her finger through the air and sealed the Fire Witch’s lips in ice. “Wait here while I deal with the rest of your rabble.”
The Ice Witch turned to face the field of ice and smoke. Her knights were still battling the enemy forces that remained. Captain Beaumont stood alone against a group of mercenaries. The Knight Captain’s long blade seemed to cut through the line of armed men as easily as a kitchen knife would cut through vegetables. The remaining Royal Knights stood in shield formation around Prince Nicholas, who was barely visible behind the steel wall.
Carina exhaled and then blasted a runaway mercenary off his feet with a wave of her hand. ‘This wasn’t how I thought it would go down, but it is my victory all the same.’ The Duchess breathed out a shaky laugh and focused on freezing any foe attempting to escape from the fight as the battle quickly waned.
“Well done,” Kirsi murmured from the back of her mind with an unexpected surge of approval. “Not bad for your first taste of battle.”
‘I’m not done yet,’ Carina replied grimly as her outstretched hand tightened into a fist. ‘Not until Marquess Borghese breaths his last.’