The woman walked out of the forest and stood in the middle of the road, gazing in the direction Selvina had come. The wind had died down to a breeze and her long, black locks, lightly tinted in red, lightly brushed against her back and arms, the rest of her body statue-still.
Selvina crept out of the woods and stood nearby, glancing down the road and back at the woman. "What are you doing?" she asked in a small, frightened voice.
The woman didn't look at Selvina when she said, "It appears that the one I came to see has come to me instead."
Who was she? Selvina wondered, her mind coming up with a thousand possibilities, most of them unsettling.
The first knights appeared into view a moment later. Leading the charge was a knight in red armour atop a white horse, a huge sword strapped across his back. Flanking him was a much older knight in silver armour atop a roan steed and one that was not much older than Selvina in similar armour atop a russet brown.
Sir Galahad, Sir Kay, and Sir Tristan, Selvina noted. Behind them came the other knights, all heavily armed and armoured, ready for battle. The middle knight was tall, bald, bulky, armoured in dull grey and armed with a large battle axe-none other than Sir Perceval. The other two were knights newly arrived from Avalon, short and stocky Sir Bors, armed with a large halberd and broadsword and Sir Lamorak, black bearded, dark eyed, and known for his aggressive fighting style, armoured in red and grey and armed with two fierce-looking war axes. The six knights stopped a dozen paces away, their eyes glaring at the woman in black.
There was the sound of rushing air and Selvina looked up and gasped. A raven swooped down from the sky and landed in front of the knights just as a griffon dove to the ground behind the two women, its padded feet landing softly. Sitting on its back, Excalibur unsheathed, was King Arthur, his face grim and his eyes firmly set upon the older of the two.
There was a buzz beside Selvina's ear and suddenly a voice.
"Get off the road, Selvina!" Tinkerbelle urged, her voice panicked. "Don't you know who that woman is?!"
Selvina was too frightened to move or think. For King Arthur and his best knights to drop everything they were doing and come galloping down the road meant that something dire was afoot. This woman, who appeared so kind and welcoming, could only be one person.
In a swirl of black feathers and green light, the raven grew into an old, hunched man with a gnarled staff in one hand and a great beard on his face. He was the only one to look at Selvina. In his soft, wispy voice, he said, "Please, step aside, young one."
Selvina didn't move immediately. She eyed the woman, who met her gaze, and wondered if anything she had said was true. If King Arthur, Merlin, and the Knights of the Round Table clearly despised her, then she must be dangerous. And yet, despite the obvious, Selvina didn't feel it. She was afraid, yes, but a piece of her was yet curious to know if going with this dangerous woman wasn't such a terrible decision.
"Step away from that witch, girl!" Sir Kay shouted, his blue eyes flaring.
Girl? Selvina thought, hot anger igniting within her. Sir Kay had been nothing but a short-tempered, offensive, old man to her and, considering she held the fate of his world in her hands, she didn't deserve any of it! Enough was enough!
Banishing the cold fear and replacing it with hot anger, she pointed a rigid finger at Sir Kay, her face red with fury, and shouted, "Girl?! I may not be a princess or a queen but you can make the effort to call me by my name!"
"No, don't!" Tinkerbelle pleaded, frantically tugging on Selvina's ear to get her attention.
There was no stopping her, Selvina's rage pushed onward and she shouted, "I am the one you are to protect, Sir Kay! I am your future! Call me by my name, you old, miserable man, because I'm not going to take your shit anymore! I am Selvina, not girl!"
Instantly, everyone's expression changed. Sir Tristan eyed Selvina through disappointed eyes and shook his head of brown locks. Sir Galahad's eyes closed and he sighed deeply. Behind them, Sir Perceval and Sir Bors acted similarly. Sir Lamorak growled and glared at Selvina. Merlin's face was unreadable. Sir Kay looked angry, as usual. Glancing back, Selvina saw King Arthur, now dismounted, clench his jaw and shake his head slightly.
What had happened? What had she done? Why did it look as if she had betrayed them somehow? Impatient for answers, she snapped her gaze to Tinkerbelle, whose face was in her hands.
"What's wrong?!" she asked, her mind twisting and writhing in confusion.
"Stupid girl!" Sir Kay shouted, his face red with anger. "You've ruined everything!!" In a fit of rage, he slid off his horse, unsheathed his blade, and stomped over to the woman in black, who was wearing a most unusual smirk. "With me, knights! If we kill her now we can right this wrong and the war is over!"
"Dear brother, no!" cried out the king, his eyes wide and his face pale.
With a simple sweep of the woman's hand, Sir Kay went soaring through the air and crashing thunderously into a tree off the side of the road, his body broken. There, he lay still and never got up again.
Selvina's body froze in terror. In a blink of an eye, Sir Kay was dead. She had never liked him much but he didn't deserve death. Gazing at the woman through terrified eyes, Selvina began to back away. She had been wrong. She had been completely wrong. This woman was dangerous-incredibly so.
"Empress!" King Arthur called, struggling to keep a straight face. "Cease this! No more lives need be lost this day."
Of course she was Empress Rhiannon, Selvina thought, horrified. Why else would she show so much interest in her? And now, because of her blatant stupidity, the empress knew exactly who she was and there was no escaping it.
The woman turned around and eyed King Arthur, her face serene. "He advanced on me first, Arthur. I was simply defending myself."
"He was my brother, Rhiannon. You didn't need to kill him..."
"We are at war, you and I, Arthur. Such things happen."
King Arthur frowned. "Why have you come?"
"I came to speak with you. Seeing as you are here now, I supposed I shall take the moment to say that which I came to discuss."
Selvina was nearly back into the forest when her feet ignored her pleas to move. She struggled to keep backing away but try as she might, she was rooted to the spot. Glancing down, she noticed black vines rising out of the ground and wrapping around her ankles, pinning her in place. Her eyes went to the empress and she thought she saw her grin.
"Tink!" she whispered to the fairy who stood on her shoulder. "Help me out!"
The fairy buzzed down to her legs and began attacking the vines with her nail-forged sword, slowly cutting into them. It would take time to break through them all but if the empress's attention could remain on King Arthur, she might have a chance to escape in time. Around the dangerous woman, the knights were circling her, trapping her. Merlin walked over to stand by his king's side, his hands firmly gripping his staff, ready for anything.
"Nordara has fallen, Arthur," the empress was saying. "In mere weeks or days, the armies that conquered it will be coming here. These are Swordenish armies and they do not shy away from winter. I am certain you have a great force here, Arthur, but how long can it last against the unceasing raids and attacks brought upon by the Northmen? Your winter will not be a quiet one and come spring, once my legions advance upon you, defeat will be all but assured. You are out of allies, little king, and continuing this war will only lead to your defeat."
"You'd have me surrender?" King Arthur said, his back straight and his gaze steady. Despite having witnessed his brother so quickly and effortlessly killed, the king was fearless. Selvina watched him and could feel a small stream of courage flow into her, combating her all-encompassing fear.
The empress shrugged one shoulder. "I would have you save your people from needless slaughter. There is no victory for you in this war, Arthur. Frenis will soon fall. Sauradia is on the brink of civil war. Midae is leaderless. Kenmard is all but useless and there is nothing left of New Avalon's army. As I said before, there is no victory for you."
"Surrender is impossible, empress," Arthur said, his voice clear and unwavering. "If we are to be the last obstacle in your path we will stand firm, whatever the outcome. Your war is harming the very world we live in and by Irtue's grace I will fight until the end to stop it."
"I thought as much, foolish little king. Truth be told, I came to examine your forces and see for myself how little chance you have at claiming victory. Needless to say, I can no longer do so. However, there is something I can do that will forever weaken you and all but secure me a total and complete victory."
Selvina's spine turned to ice when the empress's eyes settled on her. "I came for simple intelligence but now I will leave with victory assured."
"Try anything, Rhiannon, and we will strike you down where you stand," Merlin said, his voice gentle no more. Charged with energy, he seemed taller, younger, and filled with terrible power.
The empress smiled, still staring at Selvina, and slowly opened her palms. "Many have tried, old friend, and all have failed." In a wisp and swirl of smoke two flanged maces of sparking obsidian appeared in the woman's hands, crackling and humming with energy. The knights surrounding her tensed, readied their weapons, and then time stood still.
Selvina held her breath, not daring to shatter the deafening silence. Tinkerbelle stopped moving and the wind died completely. Not a branch moved, not a single leaf fell, and no birds sang. It was as if the world had suddenly become a painting, lifelike but forever frozen in place.
Then, in a swish of black, the empress turned to face Merlin and King Arthur, raising her maces high above her head, and then brought them slamming down to the ground. The force of the strike sent a wave of dark energy blasting outward. The wave crashed into the wizard, the king, and the griffon and sent them tumbling backwards, all three crying out in agony as the energy bit and tore at them like fire.
Angered at the sight of their injured king, the knights charged. The empress spun to face them, her white hat tumbling from her head. She bent backward under Perceval's swinging axe, sidestepped from Galahad's falling greatsword, smacked aside Tristan's slashing blade, blocked and deflected Sir Bors' halberd, and bashed in Sir Lamorak's chest. The injured knight stepped back as the others continued the assault.
Rhiannon crossed her maces overhead just as Galahad's sword came chopping down for her head, catching it mid-fall. The red knight grunted with effort as he tried to push through her block. The empress was much slighter than the tall warrior but her arms hardly trembled from the effort. Thinking her vulnerable, Sir Bors charged in, heavy halberd leading.
Selvina cried out as Rhiannon swung her arms to the side, throwing Galahad's sword astray and off-target. Unable to pull back in time, it came slicing down through the advancing knight's neck, effortlessly decapitating him. Galahad let out a cry of despair as he witnessed in terror the death he had caused. Rhiannon charged at him just as Perceval was chopping down with his axe and it looked like he'd slice one of her arms off. Instead, somehow, she shot her arm toward Perceval and her mace launched out and it slammed into the knight's chest, knocking him back. With Perceval out of the way for now, Rhiannon dealt the still-recovering Galahad a vicious blow to the face with her remaining mace.
Selvina shut her eyes as the man's fiery-haired face snapped to the side, torrents of blood gushing out from the mouth. The red knight staggered back, injured but not defeated.
Rhiannon never let up. She extended her empty hand and from it shot out a rope-like tentacle of dark energy that wrapped around the other mace's handle and pulled it in, returning it to her. With both maces in hand, she leapt and raised them high. Both weapons came down hard.
Miraculously, Galahad raised his sword in time and stopped them, saving his head from a most gruesome and splattering fate. With a cry of rage he threw her back where Perceval, Lamorak, and Tristan rushed in to engage her.
"Hurry, Tinkerbelle!" Selvina hissed, looking down at the transfixed fairy. She had almost forgotten how much Tinkerbelle enjoyed battles. "Cut me loose so we can leave!"
"I can help!" Tinkerbelle shot back, buzzing up to eye-level and giving Selvina a frowning face full of determination. "We can end this all now!"
"No! Don't be stupid, Tink!"
But it was too late. The fairy flew off toward battle, where Rhiannon had just knocked Sir Perceval out of the battle and appeared to have broken one of Sir Tristan's legs. Galahad and the injured Lamorak kept up the fight, greatsword sweeping and stabbing and twin axes chopping and slashing, as further back, Merlin and King Arthur were recovering.
Selvina watched with a cold, trembling body as Tinkerbelle flew in, going for the empress's eyes, tiny sword leading. For a moment she had her distracted and Lamorak was able to knock one of her mace's aside and Galahad scored a cut across her abdomen. Encouraged by the small victory, brave Tristan limped back into the fray and thrust his blade toward the empress's side.
The empress suddenly let out a shriek so loud and powerful that everyone around her was forced to cover their ears. Selvina's head pounded as if it was going to split open and, though she too was screaming, couldn't hear any of it. When the pain subsided and she was able to gaze at the battle once more, Tinkerbelle lay in a tiny crumpled heap on the road and Galahad was on a knee and holding himself up with one hand on his sword, blood dripping out of the cracks in his armour. Tristan was battling the empress gallantly but, in his injured state, the duel was short. She scored another cracking strike on his broken leg, further destroying it, and then raised her own leg and threw him back with a kick to the chest. He fell to the ground and, wailing in pain, stayed there.
Selvina hadn't seen what had happened to the Lamorak but he too lay on the ground, motionless and surrounded by a pool of his own blood. In mere moments, five of The Round Table's best knights lay defeated, one killed by his own brother in arms.
"It is a pity Lancelot is not here," the empress said, turning to face the advancing King Arthur and Merlin. "I would have enjoyed a true battle."
Selvina could tell the king was doing all he could from looking at his downed knights. He was older than they had all been and if they couldn't defeat the empress, what chance did he have? Selvina went cold at the thought that she might be witnessing the death of a legendary and timeless figure.
"There is fight in me yet!" Sir Galahad called out, slowly rising to stand as blood leaked from his nose and mouth. His armour was redder than usual, covered in his own blood, but the valiant knight raised his sword and held his ground, albeit somewhat shakily.
Empress Rhiannon glanced back at him and rolled her eyes. "You must learn when you are defeated, son of Lancelot. You are not your father." She dropped one of her maces and, with her empty hand, turned it palm up, fingers curled inward like the legs of a dead spider.
Sir Galahad screamed as black serpents materialized around him and coiled around his body, biting him over and over, their black fangs piercing through his armour. They slithered over his body, snapping and striking, as the knight was slowly raised up into the air by an invisible force. The red knight soon floated twenty feet above as snakes of dark energy assaulted him relentlessly.
With a chuckle, the empress opened her hand and the snakes vanished. Sir Galahad dropped to the ground with a thud in a red pile of steel, flesh, and blood-down for good.
The empress was admiring her work just as a glowing sword of light slashed down at her. She somehow managed to spin aside in time, avoiding it completely. She faced King Arthur and, grinning confidently, lunged forward. The old king parried her first strike and blocked her second. She fought with one mace, her free hand glowing purple, the light coming from it getting brighter every second.
Merlin, meanwhile, was rushing to the defeated knights and pressing his hands on their bodies. With his eyes closed, he muttered a few intelligible words and then moved on to the next knight, hurrying as quickly as his ancient body could. Selvina watched with wonder and relief as the knights he tended to would then stir to life, as if brought back from the brink of death, which was most likely the truth of the matter.
"You are slow, little king," the empress was telling Arthur as his blade and her mace were caught in a deadlock. Light and darkness, neither force budged. "Age has not been kind to you."
"No matter how old I get, Rhiannon, I will never stop fighting you," he replied fiercely. "Break my body and strip me of my mortal coil but my spirit will battle you still. There is no peace for you."
"You are mistaken, Arthur. I will make my own peace and I will start by ridding the world of you!" Stepping back from the deadlock, Rhiannon threw her free hand forward and a crackling bolt of dark energy shot outward, blasting into King Arthur and throwing him back a great distance. He flew across the road and into the forest where, much like his brother had done, slammed into a tree with terrible impact and crumpled to the ground. Excalibur slipped from his hand and fell in the grass, its bright glow fading with every passing moment.
"And so ends Avalon," Empress Rhiannon said, straightening herself and gazing about at her destruction. She witnessed Merlin tending to Sir Galahad and her mouth twisted in distaste. "Let them die, Merlin. It is over for you all. Your king lies slain and there is no hope for Avalon. You are wasting your effort."
Merlin finished his work on Galahad and then stood up, facing the empress directly. He eyed her through furrowed brows and clenched his staff in one hand, the other curled in a fist. "You are blind to the repercussions your war is causing. You will doom this world forever, Rhiannon. If you wish, kill me now and spare me from watching it fall to darkness but do not think for a moment that you will prosper when this all over. If you win this war, everyone loses."
Rhiannon narrowed her eyes at the old wizard. "Do not attempt to dissuade me from my goals, druid. If magical balance is what worries you so terribly, rest assured that once I am finished defeating my enemies, I will tend to it myself. I am no fool; my aim is not to conquer a world of ruin."
"Yet that is what you will accomplish. The imbalance is already too great. End this war now and together we can right the wrongs you have caused before it is too late."
"Stop talking, Merlin," Rhiannon growled. "Your words are not going to convince me to stop the war so spare me your efforts."
"Then you would kill us all?"
"Are you deaf, old man? I will right the balance once I am finished! You are not the only one who can do so. I have sufficient power to accomplish it and you cannot deny that. Now, as I said already, shut up and let the dead bodies lie."
"I am tempted to upset the magical balance further if only to battle you and show you how wrong you are, child."
"Ha! Child? Me? Come now, Merlin, don't be a fool. You are no warrior."
"No, but they are!"
Rhiannon glanced about as the knights she had defeated started to rise, some slower than others. They all bore the wounds of battle but it appeared that Merlin had given them the energy and stamina for another round of fighting. Behind her, King Arthur was getting to his feet, despite having not been tended by Merlin, Excalibur glowing brightly in his hand. His griffin was at his side, alive and well, and was aiding him up, its golden eyes fixed firmly on the empress.
Selvina's heart burst with joy as she witnessed Tinkerbelle flutter up into the air and hurry back to her. Without a word spoken, she attacked the black vines keeping the girl pinned in place.
"I thought you were dead!" Selvina exclaimed, tears in her eyes.
Tinkerbelle didn't reply, fully invested in her work. She seemed to be done with the battle and the empress.
"This band of crippled fools cannot stop me, Merlin," Rhiannon was saying. "I defeated them once and I shall do it again. I may even use dark magic to do so and upset the balance further. Is this what you wish for?"
"You can end this, Rhiannon," replied the wizard. "End the war and return to your city. You already have an empire. You do not need a larger one."
"Fitting words for the losing side to say," the empress said with a smirk. "However, I do believe you are right. I am not so low as to fight cripples and handicaps. I am done with you all, for now."
Finally, Tinkerbelle, cut away the last vine and Selvina was freed. The girl had one last look at the road turned battlefield, relieved that everyone was standing again, save Sir Kay and the headless Sir Bors, who were truly dead. With Merlin there to protect them, she was confident that the knights and king were in good hands and she turned to leave.
"Where are you going, Selvina?" the empress called out. "You are coming with me."
Selvina, chilled at the words, charged into the forest with as much speed as she could muster.
She made it three feet before coils of dark energy wrapped around her body and she was pulled back toward the road. Screaming in panicked protest, she beat down on them with her fists but to no avail. She was soon standing beside the empress, the coils moving up and around her arms, incapacitating her completely. Tears streamed down her face as the empress let out another painful screech, disabling the king, wizard, and knights for a few moments.
During the few seconds she had given herself, the empress rapidly grew in size and changed shape, dark energy pulsating from her body. As the knights recovered, they stepped back as in place of the empress was a huge black dragon. It was covered in scales of obsidian and a line of jagged spikes ran down its back and tail. Its head, wickedly horned, opened a maw of dozens of dagger-like teeth and it roared viciously. The knights' horses, faithfully waiting a short distance away, reared up in fear and bolted.
Selvina screamed in absolute terror and, overcome by it all, felt her head grow light and her vision blur. Her last memories of that day were the feel of rough scales around her waist and a sensation of weightlessness, as if she was flying. Men called out to her but their voices were far away and getting fainter with every gust of wind, or was it the sound of flapping wings? Whatever the case, her eyes soon closed and she fell into the world of unconscious bliss.