The Scions

Chapter 8

A day later, a sound woke me up in the middle of the night. I wasn't sure what it was at first, but then I heard it again and I figured it out. Screaming. Which could only mean one thing. Belle was here.

I got out of bed and ran to the door, but it was locked. I banged on it, and was met with a gruff, "We aren't supposed to let you out." Then silence.

Furious, I focused all of my energy at the door. There were people dying out there, and I was the only one that had the ability to match Belle's. I concentrated, not even sure what I was trying to do. All I could do was make shields. What was that going to do, besides lock me in more?

After a few more intense seconds, the door burst off it's hinges. For a second, I expected someone besides the guards to be standing outside it, but the hallway was empty, save for them. Which left only one conclusion.

I did that.

I was amazed and confused and horrified all at the same time, but all of those emotions could wait. Right now, I had more pressing things to worry about. The guards didn't seem very inclined to try to stop me after the spectacle I had just  put on, so I ran in the hallway unchallenged. I felt my shields lengthen into swords in my hands, and had one thing on my mind.

I need to find them. I need to find them. I need to find them. I need to- and then they ran into me. I had no idea how they managed to be together all the time, seeing as we were supposed to be separate, all three of us. Their rooms must be right next to each other, I decided.

"We have to get outside," I said, pushing past them. "We have to help."

"I know," Aleyn said. "I know, but think about it. If we go out there, the palace will be defenseless against Belle. And-"

I cut him off. "The people are defenseless against her now, Aleyn. And you want to what, let them die to protect your beautiful palace?" I kept walking.

Zander cut in. "She has a point. If we don't do something, the people will die. Your father is convinced that letting this happen is the best plan of action for Camelot, but we both know better. If your people die, you will have no one to rule. Your father is about to destroy everything for you, and you want to let him? Why? Do you think the same way he does?"

Aleyn blinked. "No. No, of course not," And then they were walking by my side.

We burst through the door to chaos. We dove right in, completely ignoring the aches and pain from our last battle.

My mind felt sharper than normal, which was saying something. I was completely aware of everything that was going on around me, I was fighting my own soldiers and protecting the others from their's. It was like blasting that door off it's hinges had connected something in my brain.

I held two purple rods in my hands, and they were doing a lot more damage than they should have been able to. It was like everything about me was heightened. And slowly, slowly, we started to win. To push Belle's soldiers back, out of the palace grounds, back into the forest. But I knew that there was only one way this was going to end. There was only one thing Belle wanted, and that was me. But she wasn't going to get me.

"Merlyn!" Zander shouted. "Duck!" He threw a knife at my head, and I ducked at the last second. I spun to to see the person he just impaled, who had been standing behind me, comic book style, with what looked like a meat grinder held over my head. I was so preoccupied with protecting Aleyn that I hadn't noticed him.

I was getting tired, fast.  I knew that there was no way that I could keep this up. But I was not going to lose. There was no way. There was also no way I was going to win. Not like this. I needed something. A boost.

It was right as this occurred to me that I thought of something else. But I needed to get away, away from the battle and the distractions. I was just going to have to trust that Zander and Aleyn could make it without me for a couple of minutes.

I ran off, knowing that they probably thought I was deserting them. But I wasn't. I just needed time to think, and I couldn't do that with the battle raging all around.

I was running towards the castle when I head a scream that stopped me in my tracks. I don't know why that scream, out of all the screams on the battlefield, stood out to me, but it did. I spun around to look, and my heart skipped a beat. 

It was Belle, with a knife to Zander's throat. I changed directions so fast, I almost tripped. I ran towards him, and fights all around me stopped as people realized what was going on. 

Pretty soon, everyone had formed a ring. Scions on one side, everyone else on the other.  In the middle was Belle, Zander, and me. Zander looked genuinely terrified, and that was what put me over the edge. I held up a hand, felt power surge through my body, and then Belle's knife was flying out of her hand and into mine. Then all the weapons of all of her followers were in my hands too, and spread around my feet. But Belle still had Zander, and she was just as threatening without a weapon as she was with. 

But so was Zander. He pulled a knife out of nowhere and jammed the hilt of it into her head, swinging around as she staggered. He pulled another one out of his belt and flicked them around. I stood by his side, and felt Aleyn join me, and then the battle was raging again, only this time it was the three of us against Belle, and the other side's weapons were pinned to the ground at my feet. I had a feeling that this would end here, though it seemed too easy. 

When I used my purple shield and slashed a long gash on Belle's arm,  she reeled back, shocked, and I conjured a shield around her, but there was lightning lancing from the top of the sphere to the bottom, and she was on the ground. She was dying. I was winning. 

Something occurred to me, then, as I watched her die. I was new to this world, sure, but I had been here long enough to realize that this was not how the Scions did things. This woman, however evil I saw her as, was my mother, and I couldn't bring myself to kill her. 

When the shield around her vanished, and the lightning stopped, she laughed. She actually laughed. 

"I knew you didn't have it in you," She said, and then she disappeared into the crowd, calling her forces back. 

When her army was gone, I looked around, trying to find Zander. I found Aleyn quick enough. He was running towards me, but something was wrong. He looked panicked, not victorious like he should have been. 

"What," I said, my grin vanishing. "Where's Zander?" I felt his panic spread to my face. Something was horribly wrong, I could tell. 

"He's- it's- it's bad." I followed Aleyn across the battlefield, ignoring the blood dripping from my arm from a cut I don't remember getting. 

Zander was lying on the field, unconscious. Blood was seeping from what could only be a stab wound in his side. More blood was coming from a gash on his arm, across his chest, a knife sticking out of his shoulder. 

I fell to his side, putting my fingers on his neck. I felt a pulse, weak but there. I blinked, and there was a medic by my side, working to stop the bleeding. After about ten minutes, he stopped. 

"What," I said. "Why did you stop?"

"There's nothing more I can do for him. The best we can do now is make him comfortable.  There are people who need my help," He said, and ran off.  

I felt tears sting my eyes, and a raw scream erupted from my body. This was my brother. I may not have known him long but he was family. I don't give up on family. 

I concentrated, not even knowing on what, just knowing that I needed a way. A way to help him. Suddenly, there was  glowing purple portal in front of me. 

"This way," I said, and though the king's men tried to stop us, I was already through the portal, with Aleyn right behind me, Zander in his arms. 

It was time to go home.