Chapter Ten
Before she regained her feet, Queen Danasi raised a hand and she suddenly lifted into the air. It was unnatural, dangling freely through thin air.
“Put me down, you witch!” Karina demanded.
“Or what, little jouster?” Queen Danasi cackled madly as she threw Karina through the air, up against a wall.
Pain exploded through Karina’s head as it cracked back against the wall, stars swimming before her vision. She was strong, stronger than some men, yet here she was, being tossed around like a rag doll. Warm trickles of blood ran down her neck and nausea curled in her stomach.
“Wee jouster coming to beat the baddest woman of the land? And here she’s in love with the King of the dragons, who’s stuck as little more than a human,” Queen Danasi cackled, as she blew out a breath. Immediately, the throne room filled with wind so strong, the straps of Karina’s armor broke apart and the plate armor fell to the floor.
“Shut up!” Karina shouted as she kicked and flailed in the air, desperate to get down, to get at the witch below her.
But Queen Danasi wasn’t listening. Instead, she stared up at her victim. Fury was clear in her clouded eyes, as they stared transfixed at the unnatural bulges in her stomach. They’d grown twice their size since she’d put her armor on that morning until they were the same length as her forearm and pressed outward a palm’s length.
“You,” she spat, very real fire burned in her eyes as she dropped Karina. “You’ve lain with him?!” “What have you done?!” she shouted, forcing Karina back onto her back to stare at the ovular, undamaged masses in her stomach.
Suddenly, magic all but singed through the air it was so intense. The thick, stone floor of the throne room cracked open wide and the windows all shattered outward. A burst of flame so bright it was near blinding, yet cool enough to touch, flooded through the room in the form of a massive dragon.
“This cannot be so! You! What have you done?! The Dragon King was never to recover from his broken heart!” Queen Danasi snarled as she watched the flame dragon swell larger and larger until it pressed against the high vaulted ceiling. As Karina watched, the Queen’s very form contorted and convulsed. Her arms bent impossibly backward and her eyes which were already disgusting and malformed, elongated up her face until they looked like those of a snake.
While all this happened, Karina lay on the ground, hand roaming slowly over the eggs in her stomach as she watched the flame dragon soar higher and grow larger still, until it winked from existence.
For a moment, all was silent. Danasi glared daggers at her while she slowly sat up and got to her feet. The Queen stared at Karina as she walked slowly across the cracked ground and retrieved her sword from where it had been ripped from her.
“Your curse is broken, witch,” Karina smirked. As if to accent her words, a monstrous thundering roar sounded from outside.
True terror crossed Queen Danasi’s face at the sound and she scrambled away from Karina as if the Lady Knight had stung her.
It gave Karina the chance to slash against her chest with her sword and blood as black as ink spilled across the floor. Her head ached and the entire throne room felt as though it had filled with a dense fog that slowed her movement and robbed her vision of its clarity. A sense of victory came over her.
“Karina!” a voice lower pitched than humanly possible, yet heart-wrenchingly familiar, called her name as the entire throne room shook violently, serving only to deepen the cracks on the stone floor all the more.
A massive head, bigger than anything Karina had ever seen, broke through the castle wall and straight into the throne room. Gold dazzled her eyes as the sun reflected off of scales the size of her head. With haste, she scrambled over to the golden creature, even blown up the size of a small pumpkin, she’d recognize the fierce gold eye that peered at her from anywhere. Carmichael had come to rescue her.
Before she had made it halfway across the room, she was struck with such a strong blast of magic, it felt nearly as though her skin was being cleaved from the bone, though no physical damage seemed to show.
“No! No, no, no!” Queen Danasi shrieked as she shot from the ground and exploded in a burst of purple light out of the ceiling of the throne room and into the dusky sky. “This is not how this is supposed to go! You can’t lay with a human!” she shrieked hysterically, bleeding magic as it swirled around her in a thick cloud. The magical purple energy crackled tangibly in the air, but Carmichael, golden eyes the same even in the face of his dragon form, stared her down.
“Danasi!” he boomed, wings spread wide and sun gleaming off his scales in a shower of flickering golds. “You have committed crimes against the kingdom of Grizlenzadi and her people. You have exterminated an entire race, murdered my beloved and my brothers and stolen my throne.”
The Queen shuddered visibly and her purple magic faltered slightly with her fear. “You were weak!”
“You betrayed me, personally and destroyed my eggs!” Carmichael roared, flame flickering inside his nostrils and great plumes of smoke escaped past his mouth.
“I betrayed you?!” Danasi spat. “You betrayed me! You said you loved me! I wanted to be yours, Caichmiorral! I wanted to bare your eggs! I was willing to give myself completely to you!”
Carmichael snorted angrily and flames shot out from his nostrils. A low, booming growl rolled thunderously in his throat and his chest that quickly turned into an earsplitting roar of pure rage.
“You were a child! I had raised you! I loved you as a daughter, Danasi! I named you in my own tongue! You scorned that care and compassion and committed murder on a scale I had never seen before out of spite!”
Again, the purple magic faltered around Danasi, until it all but winked out of existence. She barely remained steady from where she hung, floating in the air, level with Carmichael’s great head.
“I wanted to belong to you!” she whined, tears in her scarred over eyes. “I wanted you to love me like I loved you! I... I could still be yours! Take me, right here and now! Claim me as your mate and we can be together!”
“Danasi,” Carmichael rumbled, plucking her from the air in a clawed hand and holding her up close to his eye. “I can never forgive you for what you have done. And the time has come for you to die.”
“Please... You could learn to love me...” Danasi begged, her eyes were wide in crazed terror. Carmichael tossed her up into the air and blew a great jet of blue-white flame high into the sky. The Queen sobbed audibly as she burned. It was so loud, even Karina could hear from where she still lay, dazed, in the destroyed throne room.
Queen Danasi, the witch, was dead.