The Dust Crown

Chapter 4

"I've looked forward to this for a long time," the Queen said, coming towards Clarion.

Clarion did not respond, but instead took flight and hovered a little off the branch. She pulled her thorn from her belt, though she doubted it would do much good.

She sensed the Queen's attack before it happened. There was a shift in the air around her and then suddenly she was hit by a wave of air that was as hard as a wall. It sent her flying away from the branch and closer to the trunk of the Tree.

She used the muscles in her wings to stabilize herself as quickly as possible, turning to face the Queen. She was sneering up at Clarion and using her hand to form the air around her fist.

Clarion reached out and grabbed a strand of light. She directed it into the Queen's eyes.

The Queen cried out in pain and lost focus on the air she had been forming as she covered her face with her hands.

Clarion took advantage of the moment and formed her own ball of air around her fist. She flew directly at the Queen and slammed the fist of air into the Queen's stomach.

The Queen lurched backward, coughing in pain. "You...little...brat!" she yelled.

Clarion whisked through the air to come directly in front of the Queen who was still bent over in pain. She placed the sharpened tip of the thorn she was holding at the nape of the Queen's neck.

"Surrender," Clarion said.

The Queen looked up at her and laughed. "You really think it will be that easy? You may be the Tree's pet, but I am still far more powerful than you! I have thought of many painful ways to kill you but, now that we're here, I think it would only be fitting if the one that formed you to be against me is the one to end you for me."

Clarion was confused by the Queen's words. Until she saw the flicker of movement out of the corner of her eye.

No! the Tree yelled in her mind. Clarion, fly!

But she was not fast enough. The newly formed, needlepoint-branch from one of the Tree's limbs impaled her chest with ease, guided by the Queen's will.

There was a dull pressure originating from the place in her chest that started to weep red down her shirt. Clarion was in shock as she looked into the Queen's laughing eyes.

The branch pulled out of her chest as easily as it had entered. The moment the branch left the wound, pain like fire began to flood her senses. She took a step back, and then another. Each step less stable than the last.

"What do you think of your savior now?" the Queen asked the crowd around them.

There was no response.

Clarion's head began to spin. She felt her legs buckle beneath her and she fell backward. Except there was nothing left to fall backward onto. There was only air.

She felt herself plummet through the open air and expected to hit the solidness of the Tree at any moment.

Instead, she landed in the dust pool. The millions of glowing fragments filled her vision as she drifted down further and further, her blood mixing with the dust.