Three Broken Kingdoms-Book 1 of the Lost Continent (Completed)

Chapter Forty-Eight: Reign of Shadow

The valkyries reached Crimsith by midnight, and Myra privately marvelled at the capital's fortifications. If the Empress' army had not been destroyed on the plains of the isthmus, then this would have been a very difficult city to take. Even now, when the only defenders were the city guards, they would spend blood on its walls.

Attack now, she thought. Attack swiftly, or else Medea will make us pay for Crimsith in oceans of blood.

Unlike the other cities, Crimsith was not particularly special to the valkyries or Tarua Teris. They could burn it to the ground, and no one would really regret it.

Myra signalled to the aerial legion and they each prepared to take off. Ruby would be missed among their ranks, but they were still the aerial legion, Sarai bless them all, and they would leave Crimsith in ruins.

Taking a deep breath, she rose silently into the sky, Caelia's scales smooth beneath her hand. The wind blasted her face as she swerved deep into the city, over the walls and lit up the sky with wyvern-fire. Alarms screamed throughout Crimsith as buildings began to burn. Far beneath them, valkyrie armies slammed into the gates, calvary throwing spears and unleashing a brutal onslaught on the gates of the capital.

The Battle of Crimsith had begun. Myra looked down at the city streets and realised this was notjust the valkyries' fight.

Far beneath her, the citizens of Crimsith were in open revolt, hammering against the castle with the fury of decades of pain. She had always thought that the people in the capital were all in Medea's pocket, but it seemed that there were many who struggled under her throne, even in her greatest city.

Kallias was rising up, well and truly. No longer just a few insurgents in hiding, but in the streets as the valkyries attacked with them. In Kazimiar, was the same thing happening? Did ordinary people rise and join the rebels and valkyries attacking the city?

Myra and the legion neared the castle, wondering if fire could burn marble. If only the elves had recovered enough to join them. The only thing they had done was slow the valkyries down on the journey to the capital, where they now waited on the fringes of Crimsith. In a smooth motion, she and her best landed on the marble palace. The hunt had begun, as the greatest warriors of the age sought out Empress Medea and her children.

They moved together, slaughtering the guards as they went, gryphons and wyverns wrecking the marble palace. Caelia had got the scent of Crimson blood and hunted it throughout the palace, leading them through the grand rooms and arches.

A laugh sounded behind them, and a woman emerged from the shadows. Myra turned on her heel to get a glimpse of her.

The Empress' hair was dark as night and flowed to her shoulders. Her black eyes glinted with hatred and malice as she beheld Viktoria and Myra. She was tall, with skin pale as porcelain and a glittering black diamond crown on her head. A crown that would soon be worth no more than the diamonds themselves.

"High General Myra," Medea smiled. "You're just like I thought you would be. Isn't that funny? I've spent the past decades trying to figure it out-how, exactly, to defeat the legendary valkyrie general." She spread her hands wide, gesturing to the burning city around them.

"And look," she laughed. "I've learnt an important lesson. No human can defeat a valkyrie. So, to defeat Myra Isidore you must become...something more. All the armies in the world would doubtless fail against yours. To discover how to defeat the God-Born, I looked to the moment in the history of the continent when the gods themselves were defeated..." Myra drew her blade, and Viktoria did the same. Enough of Medea's nonsense.

"The witches. God-born magic against Witcharian. It is the only way."

Icy fear shoved its way into Myra's throat, but she lunged at the Empress. The blow should have killed her, but she hit nothing but air.

"Petty tricks," she hissed at her, scanning the room for a hint of the real Medea.

The world suddenly went black, and she whirled in the darkness, looking for Viktoria. She raced to Caelia and glimpsed a window in the palace.All around her, shadows came down upon the city and the screams began. The darkness darted for the valkyrie armies and she watched, helpless, as it struck hundreds down. Gryphons and wyverns fell from the sky, and the hidden elfin army was suddenly besieged with shadows.

"The Merson boy warned you, didn't he?" Medea purred. "He must have told you to never underestimate the Crimsons. Poor job hiding the elfin army, by the way. I am the ruler of shadows, Isidore. They keep no secrets from me."

Myra was running, searching for her queen...In the distance she heard the stamp of metal on ground, boots crunching...

"Run, little Isidore. How's your daughter, by the way?"

She froze. Turned. Then she hurled her dagger at the sneering empress and missed- barely. Blood trickled down her face. Medea only laughed, and the shadows faded. With a burst of adrenaline, she grabbed her queen and hurled her onto Caelia, taking to the skies.All around them shadows burned through the valkyrie army.

And behind them, a second army emerged.

Medea had far, far more than those first six hundred thousand men, and they emerged from the city, swords gleaming.