Chapter 6 - The Dragon’s Ascent
Up in the grand throne room, the celebration had turned into a scene of anxious confusion. Queen Vespera paced back and forth across the dais, her emerald cloak sweeping behind her like the wings of a predatory bird.
“What is taking them so long?” Vespera snapped at her remaining guards. “It was just a servant or a stray dog reported in the crypts! Why hasn’t Morley returned?”
Suddenly, the massive stained-glass windows depicting the founding of Aethelgard began to vibrate violently. A low, subterranean rumble shook the chandeliers, sending crystal pendants crashing to the marble floor.
“Your Majesty!” a breathless scout burst through the heavy oak doors, his face pale with horror. “Out... outside on the upper bailey! The northern peaks... they’re moving!”
“Moving? Don’t speak in riddles, you fool!” Vespera shrieked, storming past the throne toward the grand balcony that overlooked the courtyard.
When she stepped out onto the stone balcony, the breath was knocked entirely from her lungs.
The sky above the Sunspire Citadel had turned a bruised, metallic purple, choked by an unnatural blizzard that was descending rapidly upon the fortress. And there, coiled around the highest spire of the castle like a living mountain range, was Vaelen. The dragon’s massive sapphire eyes pierced through the swirling snow, locking directly onto the balcony where Vespera stood.
The courtiers inside the throne room screamed in terror, dropping their goblets and fleeing toward the exits in a stampede of panic.
Vespera grabbed the stone railing, her knuckles turning white. Her heart pounded against her ribs like a trapped bird. “No... no, that’s a myth! The beast was supposed to be sleeping for a thousand years!”
“It is awake, Vespera,” a cool, melodic voice echoed from the doorway of the balcony.
Vespera whipped around.
There stood Seraphine, flanked by Commander Julian and a dozen loyal guards whose armor glistened with frost. Seraphine walked with an effortless, majestic grace, every step commanding the space around her.
May you like
“Seraphine...?” Vespera choked out, stumbling back against the stone pillar. “How... I pushed you. I watched you fall into the abyss!”
“You pushed a frightened girl into the dark,” Seraphine replied softly, stopping a few paces away. “You forgot that the mountain remembers every soul born of its ice. And it has brought me back to collect what is mine.”
