The Hathway Kingdom (Book 2)

Eighteen.

~Eighteen. ~

By the time that Larissa stood at the palace gates, the frightened cries of the people in her kingdom were reaching her ears. She hated the fact that they were having to go through something else that was endangering their lives so soon after they were just beginning to rebuild what had been damaged in the past months. Now, she stood at her palace gates, wearing the armoured dress that she had worn to her first meeting with Julius and the other bandit leaders as a loud crack of thunder came from the sky and the twenty or so men gathered before her all looked up towards the sky worriedly. She took in a deep breath before she stepped towards them.

"I know that you are all worried about what is happening," she began to say, and the men fell silent, turning to face her before they all bowed to her.

"Your Majesty," they all said as one in greeting and she gestured for them to all stand, and they did.

"But I need you all to understand that we can protect our people from this. I know of a way, and I know that together, we can accomplish it," she said, and she looked at them all as they all began to murmur.

"This isn't just any normal storm, Your Majesty. Someone somewhere has angered the Fates and they have chosen Hathway to begin letting their frustration known," one of the men said and Larissa glanced down at him as she paused on one of the steps. He quickly lowered his head and Larissa turned her attention back to the others.

"I am about to teach you how," she said as she looked at the others again and they all began to murmur once more.

After convincing the men to do as she instructed, Larissa had them all gather around her with the two most powerful of the two elements standing right beside her and with their hands in hers. She had then instructed the rest of the men to surround them, their hands on each other's shoulders. Once they had all done that, and she was sure that their eyes were closed as she told them, Larissa closed her own. She then sent out her energy to the twenty men gathered around her as she began to utter the spell.

"Come rain, come fall,
Please protect us from it all.
May the Fates be kind,
And not destroy what is left behind.
By the power of the Wind and the Rain,
Please allow us to be whole again."

As she uttered the spell, a brilliant, white light surrounded her before expanding out and spreading to the rest of the men gathered around her. They all gave a collective gasp before the light disappeared as quickly as it had come. She opened her eyes, revealing them to have gone the same colour as the light, before she looked at the men.

"Do and stand how I have told you," She instructed them as she turned to face the path leading to the rest of her kingdom. The men all bowed to her before hurrying to do as she instructed, lining up around the palace steps and gates as another loud clap of thunder sounded overhead.

Larissa closed her eyes as she listened to the men as well as the storm as it angrily rolled closer to the kingdom. When she heard the men's steps halt, she opened her eyes before she reached for her sword at her hip. She drew it from its sheath before her eyes lit up once more. She sent her energy out to the men again and they all drew their swords as well as one. They then all placed them with their sword tips into the ground before pointing their non-dominant hand towards the sky. As one, the men and Larissa recited the spell before Larissa slammed her sword into the ground before her after she gave it a twirl.

As soon as she slammed her sword into the ground and she gripped onto the handle with both hands, a brilliant and overwhelmingly bright jet of light shot out of the pommel and towards the sky. When it reached the height of the tallest part of the palace, it burst and spread out over the entire kingdom, spreading all the way to the borders.