The Heart Grows

Elanor checked over her armor again. Then she had Hreti do it too. As far as they could tell, she was as protected as a woman wearing a duster and a light breastplate could get. At the base of her spine was one talisman, at her left thigh another, and still one more on her right shoulder.

At her hips were two of her revolvers. The left one was loaded with regular gold bullets and the right with explosive rounds. Flexing her magic, she whispered a prayer to Sandwalker and invited the kingdom to reach to her. Both were accommodating, a reassuring warmth from the former and excitement mixed with anger from the latter.

The air of magic beside him did nothing to dissuade Hreti from his interest in Elanor. She was, in his estimation, completely fearless. Her weapons were devastating to the point where he would not like to fight her, and she'd set her sights on a goal with the fixation his pack used when hunting. "Tell us when you're ready."

Taking a slow breath, as if she were getting ready to take a shot, she let it out and rolled her shoulders. "I won't get more ready by waiting. Come on, let's do this. Is Lady Penelope ready?"

"She is still talking with the King. I hope we need her." Liv ignored the look Elanor gave her. Behind her helmet Liv had a big smile. With Astrid having gone out with a bang, as it were, she was hoping things went sideways so she could do something similar.

The request didn't surprise Penelope. She shook her head. "Right now, with Polfay, Home, and two entrances opened in Northridge, Trav is at his limit for exits." They were in the center of the city, soldiers boiling in and out again to collect instructions and change over with fresh troops.

Stewart uttered several words that would have scorched the ears of any noble lady (that wasn't a dragon). "I don't trust West Reaches. Can you let Elanor know we need to go with Plan B?"

Looking at the city square, where a large platform had been constructed, Penelope nodded. "Would you rather ride to tell her yourself?" She lowered her shoulder and lifted her right leg to give Stewart a way to climb up.

Managing to resist the urge for several seconds, Stewart climbed up to Penelope's neck and seated himself. Giving her a pat on the shoulder, Stewart said, "Put on a show for the troops, please?"

"You're asking me to show off? Don't mind if I do." The phrase came easily to Penelope, even though she'd never used it before. Travis, she knew, had such an effect on her. His culture wasn't overwhelming, but it leaked into her idioms. Spreading her wings, she stood up on her back legs and stretched her head upward.

The spray of acid was thin enough to be carried up into the sky and reduced to harmless concentration, but the sight of it froze the soldiers around the square precisely because the sight of a dragon showing off—with their king sitting astride its back—was a show of power that few would ever forget.

Once her display was made, and all eyes were on her, Penelope brought her wings down and pushed upward with her bunched hindquarters. In the air, she felt freer than ever before in her life. She would have closed her eyes to bask in the sensations of flight, but the show was still on.

Flying barely above the rooftops of the surrounding buildings, Penelope sighted down the road at her target: four big warriors clustered around Elanor.

Elanor turned when she felt Stewart approaching, thanks to her link with the kingdom, and witnessed Penelope landing behind her. Elanor dipped her head as Stewart climbed down from Penelope's neck.

"Of all the people in the kingdom, Elanor, you are among those who don't have to bow to me. You wolves too." Stewart had picked up the preferred name for the draconic wolf pack and was comfortable using it. "We're shifting to Plan B."

Grimacing, Elanor nodded. "I'll almost certainly need a ride out of there." She looked at Penelope, who nodded back to her.

Liv's blood ran hot at the news. Plan B, she knew, would likely result in her pack all dying to ensure Elanor got David out. Unconsciously, she swayed her armored tail side to side behind her. Barely able to contain herself while nobles talked, she kept glancing at the palatial fortress they would be walking into. It had heavy gates, sure, but she'd read the report that it was spacious and with huge areas of gardens. "Hreti?"

"Liv?" Hreti split his attention, waiting for a sign to begin their assault while talking to Liv.

"I'll take first."

Hreti could see the bloodlust in Liv's eyes within her helmet. She was hungry not just for their goal, but to find her end. "If that's what you want. Don't rush to glory when we have a job to finish, though. When the signal is given—do your worst."

It had been over a year since Liv had been fed the last dose of the berserker brew. Training with Astrid and their pack had taught her she didn't need it. When Elanor and Stewart finished talking, and they all formed up, Liv picked up the huge adamantine shield and a spear. She took her place to Elanor's left and their group marched toward the big gate.

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Calling with her magic, Elanor bid West Reaches to open the gate. A warming, hesitant flow of power began to stream into her from the errant city. "I promise, if you let me and my guards in, if you lead me to David, then you will be spared. You're important to the kingdom, even if you did take things a little far."

West Reaches felt hesitant at the wording. She'd demanded they kill David so he wouldn't tell them about her plotting, but this new promise was important. "The King has promised this?" When Elanor turned and looked back to Stewart, and he nodded, West Reaches felt relief. "You're not going to kill him, are you?"

"I will, but not here and now. We will execute him in the square behind me. There must be no chance of him slipping away." Elanor felt the city tense, felt her teeter on the edge, then West Reaches' power poured into her. Lifting her chin, Elanor burned with the power of the city resting atop her shoulders. "Open the gate!" she shouted.

The guards within had their orders. Even a woman speaking with the intensity of a city didn't sway them enough to open the gate. Fortunately for Elanor, West Reaches didn't have to move her wall much to rip the hinges from the gate and send it tumbling to the ground.

"Rejoining the kingdom, now, would be a good idea. But thank you for helping with this." Elanor walked forward, heedless of the soldiers staring at her from within the keep's grounds. "Put your weapons down and stand—"

One soldier, more sure of himself than the others, raised his rifle and fired. When the cloud of white and black smoke cleared, his shot had been dead on Elanor's head, only what he saw was her arm raised and the sleeve of her duster hanging before her eyes.

Peeking over her arm, Elanor was relieved that the shock of her ignoring the bullet had stunned the guards. "Put down your weapons and stand aside. The fighting is over."

When the guards shrugged off their surprise and raised their rifles, Liv had had enough with talking. Running forward, heedless of the explosive reports of rifles, she impaled one guard as he was reloading and, lifting him off his feet, slammed her shield into another.

Elanor didn't shoot at any of the defenders. With Liv having been visibly worked up, Elanor figured the woman could deal with the soldiers all by herself. She was right. Advancing on the victorious fighter, Elanor reached a gloved hand out to rest it on Liv's arm. "Spread Health," she said, calling Sandwalker's healing magic to recover Liv's stamina.

Despite the spilled blood, and with her flesh tingling from the heal spell, Liv calmed somewhat. She looked down at the woman leading the mission and found the way she faced guns without heavy armor admirable. "Point me, let me loose, and I will hunt your foes down."

"I appreciate it, and you'll probably get to fight more before we're done here, but"—Elanor knew exactly how to excite the woman again—"we don't have to hunt because we have them trapped in their den."

The magic Elanor used to restore her had cooled Liv's bloodlust, but those words pushed her right back to the edge. Falling-in beside Elanor, she marched with the woman toward the huge building in the middle of the estate.

David was shaking at his desk. He couldn't believe how the kingdom army had both the supplies and the numbers it did. The siege should have gone on for years. He would have bled the kingdom's coffers dry while his city slowly cemented itself as the wall protecting the West from reprisal.

Now he could hear the sounds of battle within the walls of his palace, gunfire, cannon fire, and shouts of soldiers trying to organize a defense. On his desk were the final reports from the gates, and how monsters had crawled over the wall and opened the main gate of the city; not even the cannons loaded with grapeshot had slowed them down.

There was still an option, but it was a terrible one. He would have to admit defeat and leave West Reaches to her own devices. "I won't leave you," he said, softly, to the big room. "Not now. Not after everything."

"David, it's too late. The only thing you can do is use a talisman and—"

"I won't!" Standing up, his blood burning, David shook his head. "West Reaches, I did all this for you—for us. I'll lie to them, tell them it was all my work."

The strength of his conviction was like an icy arrow in her heart. It stabbed her, twisted in deeper, and made the pain of what she'd agreed to all the worse. Generations of stuffy, boring avatars and marquess faded away to nothing before the connection she'd formed with David, and yet here she was with her first and only kindred spirit—about to assist with his assassination.

"Don't fight them." David reached out and closed his hand around the bell on his desk that would summon his bodyguards. He rang it. "But, I won't go down without a fight."

It was a small relief to hear David speak so. To have him proclaim that he wouldn't give her up without a fight. Watching as the bodyguards set up the office like its own small keep, she hoped he would give the kingdom's avatar the fight of her life.

Elanor approached what she knew was the entrance to David's office. She raised her fist to knock, but Liv imposed herself, pushing Elanor back and to the side of the door. "If I let you take the hit from whatever they have in there, the King and Hreti would fight to beat me to death."

Hreti, glad his helmet covered the silly grin he wore at Liv's comment, gestured to the side. "We'll wait over there." He stood between Elanor and the doors still, hoping that two layers of adamantine armor would prevent whatever fate might be in store for the woman he pursued.

Raising her shield to cover her from head to shin, Liv crouched a little so that it completely concealed her, then knocked with the butt of her spear. She expected shooting. She also expected some long polearms.

The roar and concussive force of two cannons firing, followed by Liv flying across the hallway, into, and through the opposite wall, stunned everyone with their noise and violence. Elanor wondered if the woman could survive such a thing, but the smoke pouring out of the office obscured even the destroyed doorway from her. She tried to shout something to Hreti, but a loud ringing in her ears made it impossible to hear anything but the thudding of her own heart.

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This story is released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license. If you are paying money to see this or the original creator, Damaged, is not credited, you are viewing a plagiarized copy of the story.