Plight of an Empire

Chapter Thirty Six- part 1: Audriel

The Front Line, Rundil

The battlefield was made of ice and snow.  On one side, stood Lisbette, in her armor of fire, and Laelette, donning her ice armor.  Behind them, a thousand Behemoths waited.  On each head of the beasts, Audriel saw the twins’ faces.  Every other Behemoth had a crown of fire or one of ice.  They were the twins’ army.

And Audriel alone opposed them.

She wore a dress of light that blinded those who would look upon her.  But the twins’ souls were too dark to be effected by it.  Their evil was a dark shroud that protected them from the great light that Audriel possessed.

Behind the cloak of flames, Audriel could see a smirk on Lisbette’s lips.  Laelette stood at her side, her face as hard and cold as the ice that protected her.  But their armors were nothing to Audriel and her weapon.  In her arms, she clutched her black book—the tome given to her by Adrianne Tisley.  The only weapon that could slay the twins.

“It’s over,” she told them.

“It will never be over,” they spoke in unison.  Lisbette’s voice crackled like burning wood and Laelette hissed the words.  They raised their arms.

Audriel opened her book.

The Behemoths began to scream.

Audriel jolted awake, the sounds of the screams still ringing in her ears.  She tried to shake them away, but they were persistent.  Her stomach dropped when she realized, they’re coming from outside.

She shoved the furs and quilts off of her and jumped up.  The early morning chill bit her bare skin.  Goose pimples pocked her white skin.  A chill ran down her spine.  Whether that was from the cold or the screams pouring into the pavilion, she couldn’t say.  She ran over, bumping her toe into the table in the process.

“Gods damn it,” she hissed.  She threw open the flaps of her tent.  What she saw sent another chill down her spine.  The camp was in an uproar.  Men, those both fully donned in armor and those only half dressed, ran about the camp.  Squires tried to calm the rearing and crying horses.  Knights struggled to mount their horses.  All the while, they fought a torrent of snow and ice raging down on them from an angry sky.

She spotted three Brothers struggling with their mounts.  One looked over at Audriel’s pale face and charged over.  “Stay here, Your Grace,” he barked.

“What’s going on?” she demanded.  “Are we being attacked?”

“Our scouts have spotted Behemoths.  Hundreds of them, perhaps thousands.  They’re running straight to us.”  She heard fear in his voice.  Men of the Brotherhood of Dawn weren’t supposed to fear anything.  “Stay here where it’s safe, Your Grace.”

She was either incredibly brave or incredibly foolish.  “Bring me my uncle, Lord Ronan.  Find him and tell him to come to me.  Now.”  She turned back into the pavilion before the Brother had a chance to reply.

The fire had burned out in her sleep, casting the pavilion in shadows.  Her trunks were at the foot of her bed.  She went over to them and began rummaging through them.  She had told Tella to pack it at the very bottom.  She hadn’t touched it since.  It had to be here.

Even in the dark, a glimmer caught her eye at the bottom.  With a smile, she pulled it out.  Black scales, beautiful and shining, were made into the armor she held in her hands.  Dragonscale armor.  And it was so light too.  But stronger than any steel plate armor.  It was the armor fit for a savior.  It was meant to be worn by her.  She knew it when she first saw it.  Adrianne Tisley did more than just tell her about the twins, she also told the high queen about the armor deep in the vaults of the White Keep.  Lost.  Forgotten.  Waiting.

Quickly, she removed her might clothes and replaced them with a thick, woolen tunic and breeches.  She tied her hair in a tight, auburn braid down her back.  A chill in the air alerted her to her uncle arriving.

“Audrey,” he said, “what is the meaning of this?”  His voice was hard and tired.  When she turned and looked upon his face, she saw a man exhausted and weary.  His black beard was long and frosted with ice.

She handed him the dragonscale armor.  “Help me,” she commanded.

He eyed the armor curiously.  “What is this?  Some sort of scale armor?”

“Dragonscales, uncle.  My dragonscale armor.  Help me with it.”

He pushed it back at her.  “You are not going to the front, Audriel.”

She pushed it back at him.  “Yes I am, uncle.  I’m the only one who knows how to stop them and I will do it, with or without your help.”

“You’re going to die if you do this, Audrey.  I can’t let you.  I can’t lose you too.”

She gave him a sad smile.  “I’m not going to die.  But we all will unless I can stop them.  I need you to trust me, uncle.  I swear to you and to every man, woman, and child of the empire, I will stop these monsters.”  She placed her hands on the dragonscales.  “Please, help me.”

He bowed his head.  For a moment, she thought the strongest man she knew was about to shed a tear.  But when he looked up, all she saw was stone.  “No.”  He put the armor back in her hands.  “It was a mistake to bring you here.  These men will defeat the Behemoths.  You are going back to Mynoa now.  I just pray the gods will grant you a swift passage.”

She felt like she had been slapped in the face.  Her cheeks stung with the betrayal.  “Ronan, you don’t understand.  You all will die unless I face them.”

“And you will die if you do!” he roared at her.  She fought the instinct to flinch back.  She couldn’t let him see her fear.  He shrank back, trying to compose himself.  “I’ll fetch a horse for you.  A destrier will be too slow in the snow.  A northern horse will have to do.”

He turned to exit, but she caught him by the arm.  “I’m sorry about this, uncle.”  She pulled him down and pushed him to the other side of the pavilion with her magic.  With eyes wide and full of shock, he tried to push himself up, but she held him down.  “I have to do this and I won’t let you get in my way.”

She tied him down with rope and put a gag in his mouth.  All the while, his deep blue eyes bore into her—the same blue eyes he shared with her father.   She kept her eyes away from his, but she could still feel them on her.  If you would have just believed me, I wouldn’t have had to do this, she wanted to scream at him.  But he would see soon enough.  When she defeated the twins and took control of the Behemoths herself, they would all see.

The battlefield was made of ice and snow, as she saw in her dream.  But instead of marching to meet the twins alone, High Queen Audriel had a force of over ten thousand at her back.  If everything went according to plan, none of those men would need to die.  Only the twins.

She clutched the big, black book in her arms.  Even in the sheer cold, the leather of the book felt warm.  It radiated heat.  That’s the dark magic inside of it, she told herself.

In her armor of dragonscales, Audriel led the march north.  The Behemoths had fallen silent, but she knew they were there.  They were just waiting for the twins’ command to attack.  And when they finally did, she would be ready.

The wind bit her face and chilled her bones.  The battering ice stung her cheeks.  She prayed that she wouldn’t lose anything to the frost.  So many of her men had lost more than a finger or a nose.  Near a hundred who had joined her in Mynoa had lost their lives to the cold.  She had tried to learn all their names at the beginning of the trek, but soon it became too many to remember.  You’re death won’t be for nought, she told their shades.  I will avenge you and all those who have lost their lives against these monsters.

And then, the strangest thing happened.  The wind stopped howling.  The snow stopped falling.  Everything in the world seemed to come to a stop.

She glanced around, looking at the men around her.  They were all just a confused as she was.  More than a few looked scared.  Above, the clouds were breaking and the first rays of light she’d seen in weeks bathed them.  Her black dragonscales shone in the light.  She was wearing the light she had seen in her dream.  I am the light.