Ancient Cardos: The Knight Life

Chapter 25: The Third Stone

It was dark out and me and my horse were speeding our way through the ashes of Roden. It felt like yesterday I was here training with Darwin to be a better knight.

My first encounter with Jason. The knight every one feared to fight. He treated me no different. We even had a race to collect dragon scales. Then the dragon Smoke came and we were forced to leave the knights training grounds.

I shook the thoughts from my mind. Thinking of Darwin was sadness. Learning of his death did hurt me inside.

As I was nearing Faldin my horse stopped running and stood there. "What's wrong buddy? Lets keep going." I told the horse.

"Your horse is frozen." Someone said. I climbed off the horse and drew a sword I picked up from Roden. I may not have my magic anymore, but I am still skilled with the sword.

The only source of light I had came from my lantern. "Show yourself strange person." I called out.

The strange person walked into my view and it was Chris. "Chris, I swear you could have just rode up next to me."

He had his own horse. He unfroze my horse and it began to look around confused.

"That takes away the fun." He said. "Besides, we dark mages like to use magic."

"I'm not a dark mage anymore." I climbed onto my horse. "Lets get the stone and you can destroy it. With at least one of them gone, Percy Ward can never re form."

"After you, sis." We rode off. I can see him constantly passing me and then slowing back down. He must have the fastest horse from Cardos.

"Do you want to talk about it?" He asked me. He must be talking about how I lost my powers.

"I don't know how I lost it, but I did. Its gone and I will have to live with it." I stopped my horse and got off. Chris did the same.

"To dark to keep going. We might as well rest." I tried to make a shelter using magic, but nothing happened.

"Still gone." I looked over at Chris and he got the idea. He made a structure appear to shelter us and the horses.

"Thank you." I whispered and walked in. I laid down on the ground, facing the wall next to me.

"On the bright side, sis, if you ever wanted a child, you can have one now." He was right, I have been worried about passing on my magic to my children. Now I don't have any magic. What is there to fear?

"Leave me alone until morning please." He walked away from me and I fell asleep.

I dreamt of a life that me and Jason will share. A life where I lay in the grassy fields at night and watch the stars with Jason and our children.

A life where my sword and armor are locked away. Like all dreams the nightmare takes effect.

Jason was overthrown as king and I was forced into a cell alone. Across from me was Jason in another cell. The guards came up to him and drew their swords.

I woke up to the sound of a horse going crazy. I quickly stood up and ran outside the small fort. My horse was staring down a pack of wolves.

I called for Chris to get out here. I walked over to my horse and grabbed my sword from the bag left on the side of the horse.

Chris came outside and blasted away the wolves with a wave of fire. "We should go. They can smell the royal horse blood. They want it bad."

I put my sword back into the sheathe. That was really easy for him to do. I only nodded and climbed onto my horse. We rode off for Faldin. The sun was barely coming up.

We stopped in the middle of ruined Faldin. "Where did you put it, Chris?" He looked around and got off his horse.

"Which house was yours?" He said. I wanted to throw a rock at his face. Deadly things they are. I can still feel what they did to me.

"This way." I said and we rode slowly. All the messed up buildings and ash statue citizens caused by a dragon that melted. Worse, caused by my brother who is next to me.

We got to my burned down house, it looked like it was in better shape than most. I got off my horse and walked in.

"What are you doing?" Chris asked me. "Seeing if I have anything left here." I said back and went into the kitchen to see my old helmet filled with the green dragon scales. I looked back down on my orange and red scaled shield. A green one would be nice.

I saw Chris digging up by the house. It didn't last long until he pulled up the stone. I drew my sword and ran out to him.

"Destroy it quickly, Chris." Chris stood there holding the stone like an idiot he was.

"Oh Claire, I think I will hang on to this one." He put the stone in a bag on his horse.

"What, lets just destroy it now."

"No!" Chris' body dissolved in my sight and the figure was back. Standing over me with the red eyes.

"You see Claire. We share a secret." He pulled the stone back out and tossed it to me. I dropped my shield and caught it.

"Tell me when your evil instincts kick in." He climbed onto the horse that transformed into a clouded figure as well.

"I'm not feeling any different." I said to Percy.

"Exactly, Claire." He rode the horse up to me and took the stone. He rode a few feet away from me and stared into me. I was too scared to move.

"That is because you are one of my descendants." His words shocked me. He pointed the stone at me.

"I think its about time, your real powers came into play. Your parents hid your true talents. Put a block on them. You can do so much more than cast elements."

The stone shot out a black light at me and it went into my stomach. It then split apart and went into each of the five scabs that were on my stomach where Percy had dug his hand into me and ripped away my magic. Now he is giving it back.

I dropped to my knees. My body was feeling too weak to stand. I was fighting it the best I could. I didn't want magic back if it turned me evil or if it gave me the power to destroy anything. I lifted my sword and threw it at Percy.