Escaping the King's Crusade

Chapter V

As King Alaric and his guards lead Erol and Amira to the royal palace, the princess, still plagued by her exhaustion, couldn't take her mind off the crimson dragon. She began to doze off as she recalled the first and only other time she had encountered beasts of its kind:

It was a year ago. Amira was in the courtyard of her family's palace in Jerusalem, practicing using her magic powers, which had only manifested a week prior. Like Rome, Jerusalem, along with many other ancient cities, had mysteriously changed its location centuries ago and now rested near the northwest coast of the Qarthavian Peninsula, a large desert peninsula making up the southernmost region of Khalrythia. Amira's mother, Khadija, a slender young woman with light brown skin clothed in a crimson abaya and a teal hijab, was training her. Being the sultan's main consort and the daughter of the Abbasid caliph, Khadija had spent years of her life training to become proficient in her magical abilities. She now hoped to pass her skills onto her daughter.

"Alright, Amira," she said calmly. "Try generating some rocks, like this."

The sultana demonstrated an arcane circular motion with her right forearm. A sphere of jade golden light surrounded her hand as she conjured a pile of sandstone rocks.

"Okay," Amira answered unsurely. She tried her best to copy her mother's spell. As she made the motion, a similar sphere surrounded her hand.

"I'm doing it," she thought hopefully. However, as Amira's pile of sandstones materialized, it immediately crumbled into a pile of yellow sand. Her excitement quickly turned to disappointment.

"Well, that's a start," Khadija remarked. "Try again. And really focus your mind on the sandstones' texture this time."

Amira nodded. She desperately repeated the spell several times, trying in vain to get the same result as her mother.

"Ugh, this is so hard," Amira complained after her eighth attempt. "When can I get back to doing archery practice? I'm so much better at that."

"Amira, you need to learn to master geomancy," Khadija answered. "As a royal, you'll be expected to be adept at using your magic. Besides, you'll find your power extremely helpful when you need it. And you're lucky to have this opportunity. Many of the mullahs don't want women to learn magic. If they gain enough support, they'll make it illegal for us to use it. We're very fortunate to have a king who wants us to learn magic and a caliph who doesn't mind."

"I didn't think of it that way," Amira replied. "You're right. I'll train as hard as I can."

As proceeded to make another attempt, she was startled by the sound of battle horns blowing from the city walls.

"We're under attack!" yelled one of the guards outside the palace. Amira's mother looked at her with a worried glance.

"Amira, get to safety!" she commanded. Amira nodded fearfully and ran indoors to hide in one of the palace's secret chambers. Khadija followed close behind, keeping an eye on her daughter to make sure she was safe. As Amira darted through the doorway, the princess was again startled by another, much more chilling sound, unlike anything she had heard before. It rang like the roar of a great, prehistoric beast; one she had only heard of in legend. She looked up at the sky and saw that her fears were true. A large crimson dragon was flying by, circling the palace from high above. As the dragon turned slightly sideways, Amira could make out the figure of a man riding on the creature's back. She watched in horror as a bolt of lightning shot from the man's hand and hit one of the courtyard's palm trees, setting fire to the palace garden.

"A brontomancer!" she thought in alarm. Khadija conjured a stone block in front of the doorway to prevent the fire from spreading inside. As they hurried through the palace hall, Amira looked out the window and saw several dragons flying lower. Once they were 30 meters above the ground, the dragons started spewing flames from their mouths, setting every structure in their path ablaze. Several guards ran towards Khadija from the other end of the hall.