Seron

We stormed the camp. I was terrified we wouldn’t make it in time. When I got the word that Ezeru was giving himself up to save Phoebe, I had to make a quick decision myself. I could rush back home, or I could stop Ezeru from turning himself over to the mist dragons.

An easy decision for me, despite the stakes.

Phoebe had four guardians, plus Aurek and Oszin with her. And I didn’t trust Izeria.

But part of it was plain old pride. I’d never been one to act on pride. I’d always been one for taking the high road. But I also remembered how the mist dragons came to our castle, pretending to be refugees. Aurek didn’t want to trust them, but that was the one time he decided to take the high road with me. And that was how they got me. Now, I had my own revenge to take on the mist dragon queen.

Man, I hope I don’t have anyone’s life on my head at the end of all this.

Losing Phoebe and her guardians was too terrible to contemplate. But maybe if we got rid of this toxic royal family once and for all, we could finally achieve peace, and I had to keep my eyes on that prize. This war would be our last. That sustained me.

“Ezeru!” I shouted.

“Help!” I heard a girl call in the human tongue. I turned and saw a girl with black braids. She looked a little like Himika (although far less beautiful, I thought privately). She saw the other humans and realized we were there to save her. A burly mist dragon slapped a hand over her mouth and nose and she passed out.

I charged at them. One of them slammed a stone club into my sword and a few sparks flew from the blade.

Some of these mist dragons had a lot of brute strength, I’d give them that. They didn’t just rely on mist.

“Tanu,” he growled. “We fought together, once.”

“That wasn’t me.”

“Too bad. You were good. Still are,” he admitted. “I liked you better on my side, but I guess we’re all loyal to our own in the end.”

“I’m loyal to honor,” I said.

“So, you’re a real warrior type under any name, huh?”

I was a little thrown. I didn’t like this familiar bantering. I’d never relished killing; I could do it to nameless hoards, but it was a lot harder to take a guy out when he was talking to me like he knew me, and I was pretty sure he hadn’t done anything wrong except to grow up in the wrong kingdom. Sure, he could have rebelled, but I knew how that would go for him.

“The rebels,” I said. “Are they all dead?”

“Not yet. The queen likes to make something of it.”

“Truly? They’re not dead yet?”

He suddenly slugged the club right into my gut. “Sorry,” he said.

A human stabbed him in the back and he collapsed forward. “King Seron,” the human said. “Come on, sir.”

“Damnit,” I muttered. We took on the other two dragons together and I got the limp priestess in my hands. Poor girl. She looks freaked out even unconscious.

I held her like I held Himika sometimes—her head slumped on my shoulder, my arm supporting her around her thighs, like a kid. These Gaermoni girls were so little it wasn’t hard to scoop them up. She was total dead weight, and luckily not much bigger than Himika. One handed, I turned and blocked a blow from another dragon, then glanced around. There was definitely mist in the air. It was making me feel weak and addled the more time went on, but my men seemed to be keeping on top of it. I could sense that this battle was turning in our favor. If they had any amazing tricks, they would have used them by now.

I turned and suddenly I met eyes with Izeria herself. Ezeru was slumped on the ground at her feet and she had a dagger in her trembling hand.

“No!” I lunged toward her.

“Stop or I’ll kill him!” she shrieked.

“Then why haven’t you done it already?” I kept coming.

“Ugh!” she screamed, jabbing the dagger into him.

“No!” I grabbed her and tore her away from him.

“T—Tanu—”

“Seron.”

Her eyes swept up and down my body and I think she could see I meant business. “King Seron…I—it wasn’t a killing blow. I couldn’t. I couldn’t kill him. I may have lied about almost everything, but Ezeru…”

“You think loving one person is enough to spare your life?”

“I’ve heard you’re an honorable man,” she said. “You know where all of this began. My people were all cast out because one bad group of mist dragons attacked your kings. And for that—we were banned from your halls. We lost the best hunting grounds and farming fields. Our children were killed in the battles that ensued. We weren’t welcome anywhere. You asked for that! My father…raised me in nothing but hatred and revenge and it’s all I know!”

“If it’s all you know, what am I supposed to do with you? I do want peace. I do want honor. I am going to take all your rebel prisoners home with me and welcome them to my kingdom. But I don’t think you’re redeemable. Even reasoning with you now—I can’t trust you.”

“I—I wanted to make a deal with Ezeru. I wanted Rothair to stop Merrick from killing Phoebe,” she said. She lowered her gaze. In a small voice, she said, “Can you…heal me?”

Ezeru stirred to life. “Don’t…Seron…don’t. We need to kill her. Don’t listen.”

I lifted my hands to Izeria’s face.

I had always been a healer at heart. My children would be healers too. But they could use their gift the way it should be used. Not to save the lives of wounded soldiers.

To help mothers give birth. To save people from injuries. To ease an old person through their final days. They could decide what suited them, but I would give them a world of peace.

In Izeria, I felt darkness. Hatred. Pain. Layers of it. There was the smallest glow buried under it all—the potential for redemption, but it could just as easily die under the weight of resentment and loss. She could poison everything around her. She could lie and cheat as she already had. She was responsible for a lot of cruelty.

Aurekdel, I thought, would never let this woman live.

I frowned, and I drew bright magic from the crystal all around me, and then I pressed my fingers to her eyes and gave them the focused brunt of the crystal’s light magic.

She screamed and jerked away from my touch. I took the dagger from her before she could get any ideas.

“My—my eyes…!”

“Izeria, you’ve mocked my best friend long enough,” I said. “You’ve taken things from people like it’s some sort of game. I can’t spare you without consequence. When we get home and I’ve had a chance to rest so I have magic to spare, I will do my best to heal you. But you’ll also have to heal yourself. We’ll talk. You will help me facilitate peace between my people and yours. If I sense the slightest whiff of betrayal out of you, that’s it. The only thing that is keeping you alive is that the crown is on my head.” I looked at Ezeru. There was no use looking at Izeria anymore. The light magic probably wouldn’t entirely destroy her eyesight, but it was definitely going to damage it, and she’d be seeing the flash for a long while.

He slowly nodded.

“How are your people?” I asked him.

“None lost,” he said.

“Where is Rothair?”

“The rocks ate him.” His expression was dark, but satisfied. “I’m sorry that it wasn’t what you would have done.”

I grinned. “You wear the dark crown well, my friend.”