A Legacy of Dragons(13)

While pain shot through him, he wrapped his right arm upside down around the other's neck and throat. Using his weight to carry the other with him, he dropped down, angled back. His right knee out.

As knee and neck connected, he tightened his grip. The cracking sound he heard confirmed the snapping of the other's neck.

He flailed on the ground in agony, struggling to pop his shoulder back into place.

Coming up against a wooden post, he stood and rammed back against it until he felt his shoulder slip into place. Sighing in relief, he slid down, slumped against the pole and it was here the city guards found him.

"On your feet," one shouted.

Another struck Emel with a club and said, "The king's justice."

Emel tried to stand but before he could the guards took to beating him with their clubs. He curled into a ball, did his best protect his head and face.





Chapter 10





"My father?" Vilmos repeated, his eyes fixed on his mother's.

Before Delinna could say anything, Praefect Aamun Myrsk shouted to the heavens, "Centuries of work, a lifetime, to reveal the secrets of killing the undying one and break his bond so that my people could know no master."

The two giants standing protectively on either side of the Praefect seemed disconcerted by what they were seeing.

Aamun Myrsk sank to his knees, put his head in his hands. His words reverberated off the thick walls of the ice dome and lingered hauntingly in echoes for what seemed an eternity.

His enraged shrieks grew murderous. "Why? Why? I did everything, planned everything, sacrificed everything. The immortal one died. Free will was tasted."

Vilmos shuddered involuntarily. His mother's eyes had been wary before but now they were full of panic. "Mother?" he asked.

Delinna took his hand to hers. "We don't have much time. Our best chance is to work together. Pull strength from the Abundance even if the wellspring seems out of reach."

To Ærühn, she said, "We need you. The fight of a lifetime comes."

Vilmos thought about telling his mother of the battles of the previous day, but kept silent. He stared at her. Where had she been? Where was his father? Why had the Praefect sealed them in a dome of ice? His mother stared back at him. He leaned closer and stared into her eyes, looking for answers that weren't there.

Ærühn bit into his cheek, spat bright red blood into the cold white snow. Vilmos returned the gesture, showing he pledged his life to the fight as well. Afterward, they jumped onto the bears with Vilmos' mother sitting behind him.

Praefect Aamun Myrsk seemed to suddenly realize he wasn't alone. He stood. "You," he shouted, staring daggers at Vilmos. "You ruined everything. You are an abomination. You were not supposed to be."

Sitting astride Warbær, Vilmos waited for whatever came. Delinna whispered in his ear, "Come what may never forget that you are an Alder, that the blood of kings courses in your veins."

Without warning, the Praefect struck down the other two giants, pushing mammoth shards of ice that materialized out of his hands through their chests. As their bodies were falling, he set upon Vilmos.

Vilmos' panicked screams sent Warbær running. The bear swerved just in time to avoid being skewered by a tree-sized ice spear. Crashing into the ground beside them, the spear sent a shower of ice and snow into the air.

"What did you do?" his mother asked.

Vilmos told his mother what he'd held back. "Noman is gone. I'm Watcher of the Ice now."

His mother's eyes went wide. "Impossible."

The bear turned sharply. Vilmos held on tight. "Noman died yesterday.

"How?" she asked.

"I'm unsure. We only just learned this as we were out searching for you and father."

He reached for his magic, found, as his mother had warned, that the well source seemed beyond his grasp. Despite this, he pushed out with his will, fought to pull magic around them as a shield, and it was this razor thin shield that saved them from the giant's next volley.

"You and Ærühn out alone?"

"Yes," he hissed. "I was worried. We encountered giants not far from here. Windstorm himself tried to keep us from the Great Door."

His mother wove magic that he didn't quite understand, but it protected them from the giant's next assault.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Ærühn and Lilbær charge the giant. Ærühn was wielding his twin blades and with the giant's back to him, Vilmos thought he might have a chance.

Hope was dashed in an instant, for the giant swatted them with the back of his hand like a human might do with a bothersome bug.

Bear and man went flying, crashing into the dome.

It was Delinna's turn to scream and her wrathful shouts echoed throughout the dome. "Noman was a friend to the peoples of the Ice. You are responsible. You killed him. You had no right."