The Chronicles of Articia; Children of the Dead. K.D. Enos

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СКАЧАТЬ it looks like things have settled down here. Let us go and help father clean up what remains." Dominic looked toward Alec, "Alec, lock the doors behind us and wait for our return. I believe this will be over soon."

      Dominic and Tristan darted out of the room and turned down the hall toward the sounds of battle. Alec closed and locked the door and turned to Ava. "What the heck is going on here? We never actually had to fight before, though we have had plenty of drills. I never expected to have to use my skills for real!" Alec was clearly upset.

      "Keep your voice down, Alec. We're alive, and together, and that's what matters." She turned and looked at the door. She knew that behind it was blood. There was lots of blood. She thought about the recent events and realized that it was not the actual blood or the battle that bothered her, but what the result of her actions meant, the real meaning. She thought about the loss and the lives that she and her siblings had extinguished. The men would have no second chance to change who they were and what they had done. They were condemned to the abyss, to the darkness. There would be no chance for redemption.

      "The time will come when we will draw our first drink of blood, and that will be the day of sorrows."

      Ava recalled the words of Last Kiss and now understood their meaning. Her innocence was now lost, forever.

      She had not realized how much it would bother her to take a life, but it was necessary in some situations, and this had been one of them. Dom and Tris would tease her and call her weak. To care for the lives of the enemy you took was not something you are supposed to allow yourself to feel.

      As Alec looked at his sister, trying to understand her sudden silence, Ava jumped to her feet and grabbed Last Kiss. Sensing the danger from behind the tapestry on the wall, Alec jumped up with Shadow Fang and stood beside her.

      Faster than they thought possible, a dark figure moved out from behind the tapestry and angled toward the pair. Ava, mostly on instinct, parried the lightning thrust, clearly aimed at her heart.

      "An assassin, he came in through our training yard passage!" Ava yelled to Alec.

      Alec was kicking himself mentally for not checking the passage when he and his brothers checked the room. He closed the distance with the assassin to help keep his sister safe. This guy is good, Alec thought, not your standard man-at-arms. How is he managing to keep both of us from scoring a hit? A dance of blades continued for what seemed an eternity before Alec allowed himself to become distracted. The assassin took quick advantage of this critical mistake and came in under Alec's thrust to score a vicious slash to his arm.

      "Arrrrgh." The blow forced Alec to withdraw a few steps, clearly out of the fight for the moment.

      Ava, seeing her brother's distress, stepped in front of her brother to keep the assassin from finishing the job. She could not contain the rage building inside her as she directed the power of her magic at the assassin.

      Alec was holding his wound to staunch the bleeding. "Ava, no!" he shouted, as he watched his sister lose control. Her eyes were changing colors rapidly now.

      As the assassin stepped in to what he thought was going to be an easy strike, the man looked into her blazing golden eyes. The assassin's eyes widened as a burst of wild energy exploded from her body. The burst of lightning and power blew him into the wall. Her magic immediately extinguished the life of assassin; Ava's power was too immense for him to survive the attack.

      "Ava, regain control! You must regain control!" Alec yelled. Ava did not hear him as the energy continued to flow from her body, igniting the tapestry on the wall. Seeing the tapestry burst into flames and realizing his sister was lost in the power, Alec yelled a prayer, "Adara, help us!"

      Alec covered his head, expecting the castle to collapse under the assault of Ava's uncontrolled magical power. As a soft light filled the room, Alec heard a whisper in his head just before he passed out, all will be well, my son.

      …

      Alec opened his eyes as he heard Ava speaking through the door: "Who wishes to speak to the willow?" Willow was actually one of Ava's chosen names; all of the royal family members had code names that described trees in the royal garden. The royal family never shared these names outside the family.

      "Birch wishes it to be so." Ava smiled and opened the door for their father. The queen followed the king into the room and turned toward Alec with a look of concern. He now realized that he was lying in a pool of his own blood. Some of the elite guards were behind the pair and turned back to guard the door to the siblings' chambers.

      Alec's mother saw the severity of the gash on his arm and started an incantation as she held her hand over the wound, "Lumen sano!" Alec's pain began to lessen. As she finished saying the phrase, the wound stopped bleeding and closed up.

      "Well, Alec, it looks like you managed to get your first battle scar," Dominic said as he and Tristan entered the chamber.

      The king and his aide moved across the room to examine the assassin. The aide reached down and pulled a brooch out of what remained of the assassin's cloak. He looked up toward the king and said, "Sire, this man was from the assassin's guild of the Mildanar tribes to the north."

      "You are correct," Henry responded, "I recognize his affiliation from what remains of his garb." King Henry looked over at his wife and Alec, "Will our youngest son survive?" the king said sardonically for he knew that wound Alec received was not fatal.

      "Of course, his wound was not so bad" Queen Angelica replied calmly. The queen stood up from tending Alec and walked toward the king. "It looks like we may have to commit more attention to our holdings in the northern territories."

      The king nodded to his wife. She was always the politician and well aware of the pending danger a large royal family represents to the many duchies in the kingdom. "Well, gentleman, looks like you got your first taste of what we will face ahead. I would express how well you did protecting your sister but it appears that she managed to handle these things well enough on her own."

      The king reached down to pick up Last Kiss. As he lifted the curved blade from the floor, sparks flew from it. King Henry quickly handed it to Ava. As he rubbed his hand, he commented, "It seems that your sword is not pleased that I handled it, Ava."

      The royal swords had individual personalities and always selected their wielders; such was the way of the weapons' magic. Last Kiss was no exception. The soul of the sword would not allow a male to take hold of the blade.

      In order for a sword to have power, it had to have a kind of intelligence, and generations of use by the royal family had added personality to each sword. When members of the royal family turned twelve, the royal family held a ceremony in to the chamber of the swords so each royal could be "selected."

      Each sword has its own history and selects its new wielder based on that history. Alec's sword, Shadow Fang, one of the oldest of the royal swords, had been a gift to the eighth king of Articia, Heldar the Great, who aided the Silver Mountain dwarves in their war with the barbarian tribes of the east. Heldar united the tribes of the lower valley into what is Greater Articia today.

      Tristan's sword, created in a time of strife and war, glimmered with flame against its silver blade. The dwarves of northern tribes had united with a group of outcast Silver Mountain dwarves in a revolt against the dwarven King Th'grem. It was the first time in history that the dwarves had fought each other. King Eric the Gold, of Articia, agreed to help the Silver Mountain dwarves defeat the dwarves of the northern tribes, and the weapon masters of Silver Mountain forged a sword for the great king СКАЧАТЬ