The Dragon Princess

Chapter 21

Former Queen Aquamarine Andry

Iron City, Sarkin

The midmorning air hung heavy with what is to come. Thunder roars in the distance, but moving in an opposite way. The sun shines across the mountains and hills down into the valley, and at the far end of the valley dust gathers in the air. The rebels have arrived. There are many, by the look of it. At my sides are my husband and my brother. Ivory screeches overhead, the warning signal that the rebels are growing close. "I have a very bad feeling." I mumble. I don't know how many more battles we would face together, but we will face them together. Starting with this one, this day.

I look to Zircon, my twin, with shining pale-blue eyes and a gaze. Grace, at his side, takes his arm and they share a look, and then he looks at me. "Can you feel it, sister?" I can, and it is an ache that seems to dull despite the growing threat. "Topaz is out there."

"Yes." I agree. We share a look; a look of sorrow. Topaz is our triplet sister, after all. Despite everything, we are one. She has made her choice, as we have made ours. "This ends today, Zircon." He takes my hand in his and we both draw strength from it. My sister and I, we lived such different lives. No one person is fully good or fully evil, but somehow we had both chosen sides that sealed our fate long ago.

Elyas kisses my temple, and for a moment I am filled with memories of our past together. At one time I was forced to choose between the two men at my side, drawing a line that did not break until years later. Now we stand together, all of us. He hands me the spyglass, allowing me to be the one to find Topaz amongst the approaching army of traitorous rebels. I almost don't want to look. Will I know her when I see her? After all, the last time we met was in battle and she wore a helmet. Yes. My mind answers, and as I bring up the spyglass and look out amongst the soldiers, I see an image that takes the very breathe from my lungs. It is like looking in a distant mirror. The only tell was the color of her eyes, which shine through the cloud of dust and look straight into the glass, as though she knows I am watching her. Those eyes are a glimpse of the past; to a time long ago when we were happy children. The last time I saw those blue-green eyes, she was a terrified little girl clinging to a table leg in our burning house. The last sound I ever heard her make was her scream.

"Who else is leading?" Elyas asks in my ear, and I move the glass to see those around her.

Another figure stands out from a memory. A happy little girl running around as I try to dress her in the morning. Her mother at my side laughs at my feeble attempts to dress her daughter. "Henrietta."

I lower the glass, and look at Zircon and Elyas who were sharing a look. "I thought Henrietta was in Emberhelm?" Zircon questions.

"It appears not." I answer. "It is her. I know it is. I know a Castian when I see one." Subconsciously I touch my side, and I can almost feel that ghost of a dagger once again pierce me by Roland's hand. I flinch and look back into the spyglass. "There is something else..." I strain trying to focus. "They are dragging someone behind them. Well, whoever it is is standing anyway, but barely." I don't recognize the figure, but I can tell it is a woman, beaten and tortured and being pulled by chains. Her hair is dark, but it could just be from the dirt in the air. Her head is hung and her body weak. The last person I had seen being dragged in such a brutal way was Elleana, my youngest son's wife, but even then she was not as badly hurt as this woman. Whoever she is, they must really hate her, or she has to have some personal connection to one of us.

"Who is it?" Grace asks, and I look at her, meeting her worried eyes and shake my head.

The poor girl, whoever she is. I look again in the glass several minutes later, and they are closer now. Close enough that I can make out that the girl is a full grown woman, not as old myself, but not a child either. I watch as Henrietta pulls yanks on the chain, giving me reason to suspect that it is Henrietta's prisoner, rather than Topaz's. The look of hatred on Henrietta's face causes pain in my heart. What happened to that smiling little girl I used to know? I have to look away from her, and I look back at the prisoner. Henrietta's jolt of the chain caused the woman to fall to her knees but got up quickly. She tosses her long matted hair over her shoulders, showing her face once and for all. A small, very small feeling of recognition from the past passes over me. I suddenly realize who this woman is, and how important she is.