A Queen Named Victory

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Grendel fell on top of me, and I braced for the impact. "Grendel, Grendel, speak to me. Come on!" I cried, patting his cheeks. The strand of black hair in front of his forehead remained. It was a reminder of whatever it was that he sacrificed in that spell. My trembling hands hovered over his chest. My healing magic did little to bring him back. His heartbeat slowed, but he lived to see another day. "Come back to me, Ursus," I begged in his ear with name magic. Morning light threatened us from the tip of the mountains.

"You there! Help me with him," I called to two of his soldiers passing through the remnants of our battle. They hurried to my side, lifting him from both ends. "Take him the best healers. I want him conscious by the time I return to the ships." They gawked at me for a moment. "Now!" His soldiers nodded to each other rather than to me. The shorter of the two glanced at me one more time before they scampered off in a rush.

I screamed into the sky. I stood over muddied corpses. Severed limbs stuck out from the mud, reaching to me. Abandoned armor scattered the land alongside shields and other weapons. I walked over bodies. It did not matter if they were Tolkniatian, Montverian, or Frost Fey. Dead bodies were just dead bodies. I stopped in front of a small hand peeking out from a fallen soldier's headless torso. I kicked the body off, revealing the face of the child. The little farmer boy who startled me earlier stared back at me with empty eyes.

I continued walking, forcing myself to see the price we paid. I felt a grip on my ankle pull me down, and I tumbled. I clawed my way back up, running towards the cleaner ground. It was not over. I heaved through my sobs. I needed to finish this for everyone's sake. Grendel's life depended on it. He needed to return to Montver at once. I had no time to cry when a massive army gathered on the other side of his mountain border. I ripped a veil from a woman's body and fastened it to my braids to hide my puffy eyes before I entered the grand doors.

Tolkniat soldiers who rushed me erupted into blue flames. I walked through the halls, following the scent of the gathered crowd. I dodged their spears. My flames lit the hall indigo blue. Their screams announced my arrival. I found Montverian soldiers and the women who survived the battle crowded at the front of the hall's stone doors. General Itkoa saluted with information. Tolkniat's nobles and the majority of the Katikar family barricaded themselves behind the doors. They dared to reject my authority after we dispelled Ivar's troops from their homeland.

"How do you want to proceed?"

"Move everyone back," I ordered.

Our future loomed over my shoulders, and my shoulders alone. Without Grendel, I had full responsibility for our success or failure. It was terrifyingly heavy. Heavier than Sangyr. My subjects, new and old, making room for me to pass. They waited at a safe distance behind the general, waiting for his command while he waited for mine.

I knocked on the door three times.

"Begone bitch, we have no use for Grendel's whore in Tolkniat."

"I'd kindly appreciate it if you'd open the doors," I called.

I did not want to ruin beautiful marble doors. The design depicting a king with thirty concubines was distasteful, but that could be fixed with some chiseling. Many voices behind the door argued and bickered over what to do about the situation.

The marble doors flew into the hall, landing on unfortunate nobles who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, giving me a grand entrance. Soldiers were on me instantly. General Itkoa and everyone stayed back as promised. Tolkniat's nobles cried when their soldiers turned into a pile of charred remains. Two more men tried attacking and met the same fate.

"I'm a fair ruler. If you wish to settle a dispute with me, then do so now."

A man who had to have been a soldier in his younger years stepped forward. He skillfully aimed at my injured side. I backtracked, memorizing his movements. He took the weight off his left leg when he fought. I used that to my advantage as I kicked him from behind. The noble rolled over and jumped to his feet, shooting magic roots my way.

I removed them with my flames before returning to close combat. He watched me draw blood onto my claws while we circled each other. A second woman intruded on our fight from behind, plunging a bejeweled dagger into my left hip. She laughed without realizing that she already lost. Both nobles fell to the floor with blisters covering their body and her dagger in the middle of the former soldier's head.

"Anybody else?" I asked, tired of killing. Three more foolish nobles ran forward, adding to my list of victims. "You know what? We're going to do this: Those who will submit to my rule may exit this hall," I spoke firmly after another body hit the floor.

Two men left the room.

Only two.

Syrek, the prized son of the Katikar family, pointing his sausage for a finger at me. "Tolkniat's crown will never sit upon a woman's head. You will die, Wife of Grendel!" Blue flames lined the perimeter of the hall, frightening the nobles into submission. I walked through their crowd to the idiot with Tolkniat's crown.

"Get away from me!"

He stepped back, but I moved through shadows. Our crowd gasped in horror when his limp body rolled down the steps. His pulsating heart throbbed in my clawed hand. His heart splat a bit farther from his body in front of the former nobles. My hellfire then consumed them. The last thing they saw before they reached death's doorstep was me wearing their beloved king's crown.

General Itkoa led my subjects back into the hall after the last of my flames dispersed into wafts of smoke. They laid the floor with their foreheads touching the dirtied ground with palms facing forward, offering their lives to me. The women who fought alongside Montverians did the same and prostrated themselves. I looked down on them from my new throne. Teardrops dripped from my chin.

'Do you see this, my love? Tolkniat is ours.'

Pain welled in my chest when I heard nothing in return. We were victorious. We were beyond untouchable with Geriset and Tolkniat under our control. It was the greatest feat in Montverian history. Our prowess reigned superior to both Ivar and the former ruling families in Tolkniat. We had what we desperately needed to deter his father's army. Grendel survived, we owned Tolkniat, and we built a secure border all in one night.

'We did it. Grendel, we did it.'

More tears fell, and I blinked them quickly before my subjects saw their queen crying.

General Itkoa led the procession as the second-highest ranking available in the hall. He saluted once more before announcing:

"All hail Her Majesty, Empress Sigrid of Montver. Daughter of Ylva. Wife to His Majesty: Emperor Grendel of Montver. Holy Mother blesses us with her grace."

I turned our kingdom into an empire.