The king smiled as his newest chimera followed his prey down one of the five narrow hallways. He turned to Emerald, who was struggling in her captors’ grasp.
“Sadly, my dear, I cannot offer you the same mercy that the foolish elf just declined. The Consul has made it very clear that you are no longer to be part of Crystalia’s story. Merely a tiny footnote in history.”
Emerald scowled. “I would never serve you, Goat.”
“No,” he agreed. “You never would.”
With a twist, jump, and kick, she wrenched herself away from the chimeras holding her. One of them stumbled into the Forgotten King, knocking the gem from his hands to the floor, where it skittered away. She dropped the ropes around her arms and bolted for the door.
A wall of brambles blocked her way.
The chimeras darted after her, but the king’s voice stopped them short.
“No, you useless imbeciles. This fight is mine.”
With a wave of his hands, the wall of thorny vines that began in the doorway grew into a circle around Emerald and the king. Outside it, chimeras honked and bleated.
Finally, he thought. After all these years, a decent fight. His skin was itching from the nearness of his quarry. The final seal would unlock once this troublesome girl’s blood splashed onto the gem.
The gem. He stooped to pick it up off the floor, and his teeth cracked together when the girl jumped onto his head.
His control wavered for an instant, his wall of brambles beginning to collapse before he recovered and strengthened the flow of magic that kept them isolated in the thorny circle. The wretched girl was atop his shoulders like some kind of demented rider, reaching forward to grab at his horns.
He teleported out from under her, grinning as he reappeared on the opposite wall to watch her fall. He expected her to crumble to the ground, but she landed on her feet and danced to one side, avoiding the vine that shot from his hands.
A tricky one. And quick. But I am so much wiser.
He waved, and brambles shot up from the floor.
The girl jumped out of the way, grabbing onto the thorny vine as it erupted upward and swinging herself out of the path of another vine that should have impaled her.
Through the tangled wall, he could hear his Bear roaring. Good. He’ll kill the pesky elf and cement his loyalty. Having a Berserker Bear was so very useful. He spent an instant imagining the scene. How he’d ride up to Crystalia Castle with his army. Chimeras. Billmen. Kodama who had seen the path to glory and abandoned the forest to serve the Shadow King. And at his right hand, Sir Gawain of the House Ursinus, furred and drooling, just waiting to claw the eyes out of the Usurper Jasper and his sniveling daughters.
He grunted as the wretched girl jumped onto his back again. Pain shot down his cheek, and he teleported, popping up nearby to clutch at a deep hole on his face.
A thorn from one of his own brambles lay in the spot he’d just left. The girl had stabbed him in the face.
“Enough!” he shouted, and his voice shook the chamber.
Movement in the doorway caught his eye. Something huge and white tore through the brambles and barreled into him. With a howl that made all the hairs on the king’s head stand up, the beast lunged.
The king disappeared a second too late, and the horrid white Mist Hound was left with a torn shred of blue robe in its teeth. It leapt for him again, and he dodged, but the girl was right behind him. He fell over her, thumping to the floor.
The Hound was on him in a second, hot drool dripping onto his face. The weight of the beast crushed the king’s chest, and he couldn’t breathe. His control on the brambles crumbled, and the wall of vines retreated into the floor and ceiling. He disappeared an instant before the Hound’s jaws closed over the space where his neck had been.
The king reappeared on the far side of the room, behind his chimera.
“Attack!” he shouted, and they lurched forward.
The Mist Hound plowed into them, and the sounds of battle raged. The girl darted forward and grabbed her rifle from the pile of her belongings.
Shot after shot rang through the chamber, and the king disappeared and reappeared again and again, avoiding each bullet.
His chimera scattered, running for the doorway. Trent was last in line, and the Hound bounded up the staircase after him, howling with rage.
Three of the king’s remaining soldiers leapt on the girl, wrenching the rifle from her grasp. They held her down, and the king pulled the knife from his pocket.
No more speeches. Enough is enough.
He grabbed the girl’s arm and sliced the skin, holding the emerald under the flow.
The floor vibrated, shaking right through the soles of his feet. This time there was no hum, no cry from the magic as the last link of its magical chain was broken.
This time there was silence.
And in the final lit corner of the star-shaped room, the glowing crystal carved like a crown shattered, its light blinking out to a beautiful, empty darkness.