"Three fingers for three warnings, Little Flame."
The chamber doors swung wide, and Riven Drae stood between two guards, his shackles glowing with binding runes. His hair hung tangled from months in darkness. His face had thinned, skin pulled tight over bone.
"I am not little anymore."
Riven's mouth curved. "No, you are not."
The guards tensed, hands moving toward sword hilts.
Thorne positioned himself between Kaelen and the prisoner. "Prison weakened him, but he can still harm you."
"I am not the dangerous one in this chamber." Riven looked past Thorne, directly at Kaelen. "She is."
Ice spread across the windows.
Elder Graves retreated. "What is he—"
Sebastian's oath-marks pulsed darker. "Ice magic and flame magic. They should tear her apart, but Elena's binding changes the laws."
Kaelen's attention shifted to Sebastian. "What binding?"
The pendant burned.
Sebastian looked away. "Ask him about Elena's final spell. The one she died casting."
War horns shook the walls. Through the windows, Verrian's warriors reached the inner gates. Thousands of them surrounded every entrance to the Archive.
But they were not charging.
They formed ranks in perfect silence, waiting.
Captain Darius Blackwood sat mounted at the main gates, his black armour reflecting firelight. Behind him, warriors stood ready with weapons drawn, unmoving.
Thorne moved to the window. "They are waiting for something."
Riven's shackles clinked as he gestured toward the formations below. "They wait for desperation. Look at the positioning. Siege engines are aimed at civilian quarters. Cavalry blocks every escape route."
Ice formed in the air where he pointed.
"He is not planning a battle. He is planning a harvest."
"Harvest of what?"
Riven's focus returned to the room. "Your willingness to surrender anything to stop the pain. Verrian does not wish to defeat you. He wishes you to break."
A messenger burst through the door, gasping. "Verrian has sent his demands!"
Halden steadied himself against the table. "What does he demand?"
"Kaelen Virelle surrenders herself by midday. In exchange, he permits civilian evacuation."
She met his eyes. "And if I refuse?"
The messenger would not meet her eyes. "He begins executing prisoners. Starting with the children from Nareth Hollow."
She forced the words out. "How many children?"
"Three hundred. All under twelve years."
The pendant burned. "I saw little Anya with her red hair. The baker's daughter who always waves when I pass the market."
She blinked once, slowly.
"She is among them."
Every candle in the chamber flickered, flames bending sideways.
Elder Morvain's staff rattled against the floor. "We do not negotiate with butchers."
General Kress shot back, "Those are simple words when they are not your grandchildren on the scaffold."
Thorne looked between Kaelen and the Council. "There must be another path."
Sebastian Voss looked up from the tactical maps, his oath marks black now. "There is. But the price is higher than surrender."
She waited.
Sebastian hesitated, oath-marks writhing. Then he faced her directly. "There is a secret about your bloodline I have not told you."
The pendant burned hotter. Around them, candles flickered in response to heat that should not exist.
Sebastian's oath-marks darkened further. He met each Council member's gaze before speaking. "The flame power you carry—" He paused. "Your ancestors built the wardlights. The barriers between realms."
Sebastian turned to Kaelen. "Their magic did not fall. It runs in your blood. You could end this war now. Burn every warrior where they stand."
His oath marks went absolute black.
"But the last time someone attempted it, the flame consumed her from within. I can still hear Princess Lyanna's screams echoing across the burning city."
"What must I sacrifice?"
"Your soul."
"That is better than watching children die."
Thorne moved between them. "Is it? I have seen what happens when flame bearers cease holding back."
She waited.
Thorne faced the window. "Kaelthorne, nine years past."
She moved closer.
He braced himself against the window frame. "Princess Lyanna attempted to save everyone when the siege broke through. The fire took her first, then the city, then everyone."
"Fifty thousand souls were gone within an hour."
You were there.
"I was to wed her. I watched her burn and could do nothing to halt the flames. Princess Lyanna's screams still echo in my dreams, along with the screams of everyone she could not cease burning."
Thorne turned back.
"I shall not watch that happen again."
"And you think I am too weak to handle the flame power."
"I watched Lyanna break. I shall not watch you burn as she did."
Riven advanced, ice forming beneath his feet. "You feel different from other flame bearers."
Kaelen turned to him.
Sebastian studied her. "Your flame burns steady, not wild. Controlled. Elena bound your power to someone before she perished, did she not?"
The pendant warmed but did not burn.
Elena's voice whispered in her memory: "The protective binding shall hold until she is ready."
Riven held her gaze. "You have seen it in your visions, have you not? The binding Elena placed runs deeper than what flame bearers usually possess."
He came closer.
"If your flame power breaks free, if you lose command of it, the spell she cast may be the only thing that saves you. What killed Princess Lyanna shall not kill you because Elena made certain of that."
A guard burst through the door. "Verrian has moved his deadline!"
The guard gasped between words. "An hour, my lord. He says if Lady Kaelen does not surrender within the hour, he begins the executions."
Through the windows, they could see Verrian's men erecting scaffolds in the enemy camp. Guards dragged children toward the scaffolds. Small figures stumbled.
Even from this distance, she could see children behind bars. Some wept for mothers who would never answer.
Kaelen's voice was steady. "I shall answer for whatever Riven does. If he betrays the Archive, the fault is mine."
Thorne grabbed her arm. "Answer with what? What can you possibly offer—"
Kaelen gripped her pendant, the metal searing her palm. "This. Whatever my mother died protecting."
Sebastian's marks flared bright. Shadows twisted away from candles.
"Then it is decided. We free him before there is nothing left to save."
Kaelen crossed to Riven.
"If I release you, do you swear to follow my commands?"
"I swear my oath."
She held his gaze. "Even if those commands lead to your death?"
"I have been dead for months already."
Kaelen pressed her hand against Riven's shackles. The metal grew hot under her touch, then white-hot. The smell of scorched iron filled the air.
The binding runes flared orange before dying.
Sebastian shielded his face. Thorne looked away.
Every piece of glass in the chamber cracked together.
Kaelen's heat melted the chains away. They fell upon the floor.
Riven rubbed his wrists, where red marks showed where the iron had bitten deep. Ice spread across the floor from his feet.
"Much better."
Kaelen realised, "Those chains held only because you permitted them."
Riven's mouth curved. "True, but I needed you to choose. Ice magic and flame magic combined."
Kaelen met his eyes. "The tales about ice and fire magic never end well."
Ice continued crawling across the stone. "Some tales do not. But I would rather perish fighting than watch children hang."
Sebastian stepped closer. "Elena's protective binding in her blood might be sufficient to command both flame power and ice magic and keep them from consuming all."
Elder Graves advanced. "Might? You wish to wager the city upon might?"
The sound of hammering drifted from the enemy camp in a steady rhythm. The scaffolds were almost complete.
Kaelen said, "We end this now."
She crossed to the weapons rack near the wall. Her mother's old sword—steel and silver inlay—came free with a ring of metal.
Thorne came closer and brushed her hand as he adjusted the sword belt. "Your mother wore it the same way."
"Where are you going?" Thorne moved to block her path.
"To make Verrian an offer he cannot refuse."
He caught her wrist. "Kaelen, wait. You are not ready. The peril—"
Kaelen pulled free. "The peril is acceptable. The alternative is not."
His hand closed on her arm. "At least take guards with you. Take me."
Riven joined her side. "The guards shall only perish. Verrian is more dangerous than any of you realise."
Thorne snapped, "Then what counsel do you give?"
Kaelen closed her eyes as the flame power stirred within her. Fire rushed through her veins, burning and building.
But beneath the heat, ice magic stirred as cold magic responded to Riven's presence.
Ice and fire, just as in the old tales.
She wrapped her mother's cloak about her shoulders, the fabric warm despite the ice spreading across the floor.
She reached for the door.
The pendant burned, each pulse stronger than the last.
She told both men, "Stay close. And whatever I do next, do not attempt to stop me."
But as her fingers touched the handle, war horns sounded from the enemy camp.
Different horns. Not attack horns but retreat horns.
Through the window, they watched Verrian's forces pulling back from the gates. Not fleeing or in disarray, but repositioning and making space.
Thorne stared at the formations. "Verrian's warriors are retreating."
Sebastian's oath-marks pulsed brighter, almost blinding now.
Sebastian stepped back. "He does not retreat. Verrian makes room."
Dust fell from the ceiling. Wine cups rattled against wood.
"Makes room for what?"
Sebastian pointed. "For that."
Behind Verrian's warriors, a creature rose from the hills.
It stood thirty feet tall, more. Arms like tree trunks. One burning red eye in the centre of its brow. Its stone flesh pulsed with crimson light.
Elena's voice whispered in her memories: "Ancient creatures should never wake."
Riven said calmly as ice spread across the floor in waves, "May the old gods preserve us. The creature changes all."
Elder Graves whispered, "What manner of creature is that?"
No one answered. They all knew what it meant when ancient creatures woke.
Sebastian turned from the window. "The Stone Devourer."
He faced Halden. "A monster your wife died attempting to keep sealed."
The creature took one step forward.
The ground shook. Buildings in the outer ring collapsed as stone that had stood for centuries crumbled to dust.
Thorne stared at the destruction. "How do we stop it?"
Riven said as ice formed on his palms, "Not with swords. Not with ordinary magic."
Kaelen watched the creature.
In her mind, Elena's voice whispered: "When the protective binding breaks, all shall depend upon her choice."
The creature's burning eye fixed upon the Archive. Upon her.
Sebastian grabbed Kaelen's arm—the first time he had ever touched her.
His oath-marks flared wild. "Kaelen, the pendant—"
She followed his gaze down.
The pendant lay cold against her palm. Lifeless. Dead.
For seventeen years, it had burned with her mother's magic. Now, nothing remained.
Her fingers tightened around the metal. "No."
The creature took another step.
From the enemy camp, children cried.
She stared at the lifeless pendant.
Her whisper cut through the silence.
"Mother's binding... it is gone."
. . .
End of Chapter 13
. . .
Next Chapter Preview: The Stone Devourer
The creature's burning eye fixes upon the Archive as Kaelen's pendant goes dead—her flame magic draining with every step the monster takes. In the Flame Sanctum's ruins, a cursed sphere pulses with stolen magic. And destroying it may cost Kaelen all that Elena's binding was meant to protect.