Fallon's sword slashed and flailed in every direction, catching Deranged Men at the throat and at the torso with every swing. They were greatly outnumbered now, and they came in swarms up those ladders. The siege engines stood at the same height as their walls and clusters of Maldurians stood inside the hooded top with bows locked and loaded, releasing volleys upon their own archers.

Fintan fought at the other end of the south wall. The Magi's mouth hung in dismay as he saw Ser Aerygaard lose his sword to the crude pike of a Deranged Man, reach down for the bow of one of his dead archers, and then crumble under the brute slamming of the pike's shaft into his back as he reached down, ending his life. It was safe to say, the walls were under siege, and they were losing territory fast. Fallon yelled to retreat, and he led a host of men who weren't under heavy pressure down the twisting stairs to convene with the larger army that waited outside the front gates to meet the enemy from the inside.

Fallon's maneuver left Fintan and the men around him stranded. There was a gaping hole now in the south wall where one of the rocks from the enemy's trebuchet had slammed into the wall and left a gaping hole that was too big to leap across. It was only a matter of time before Fintan and his handful of fighting men were overwhelmed and cut down before they could retreat.

Another big rock slammed into the base of the wall and soon the majority of the castle was crumbling around them. Fintan felt the weight of the castle's walls threaten to collapse. Blazing flames from the other side of the castle were moving quickly towards them, as the flames began to lick higher and higher from the thatch and shrapnel that had been flung earlier in huge balls of death and fire. Fintan glanced back at the last hope, which only he knew to be possible, but even that had seemed to go awry. The lookout where Terran had been standing above was empty. Where has he gone?

Terran's fall ended quickly after it began. He was greatly confused initially. He had not slammed into the swaying water of the moat, nor the hard-packed earth, but onto a flying beast. The beast had wings, and it was larger than any animal he had ever seen, yet it flew so quietly and gracefully that Terran felt like he was floating. He clutched so tight to the beast's horned back that his knuckles turned white. He turned to his left where he found Vince sitting beside him, hands on the grooved horns of the dragon's spine the same as he was doing, although Vince looked more relaxed than Terran had ever seen him. Terran did not have time to curse, for his breath was once again taken away. The dragon flew discreetly along the backside of the castle it glided lower and lower before swinging its head up and rearing its entire body upward. Up and up they went, and soon the dragon roared its mighty head and spread its wings as wide as half the castle the dragon's body introduced a new darkness to the battlefield now. The moonlight no longer shone through the sky onto the enemy or the castle, and all eyes were forced to gaze upward at the mighty beast that roamed the air.

The dragon soared and soared, and Terran wondered whether he would ever fight a day in his life ever again. Maybe he was dreaming. He pinched himself as hard as he could, and he watched the blood pool up on his arm from his pinch. The dragon seemed to know his thoughts, and it craned lower and lower until its massive talons slammed down and dug into the earth. Nearly a hundred Deranged Men died under the coverage of the dragon's two wretched claws. Terran rose from the dragon's back and the night was so silent he could hear the caw of a distant bird from among the forest beyond.

Terran held his hands out to his sides and stood triumphantly before the enemy. He saw that he had the attention of the Maldurians. They stood with their pale skin and their red or blue markings. Thin as pen, the markings ran down their faces and some boasted horned heads and slits for eyes that had black ink dripping down from them as some sort of societal markings. Terran lifted his stump for a hand; the hand that had slain the Maldurian King all the time ago in the meadow.

He did not need to speak, for the Maldurians knew what the stump meant. As long as the rightful king was not inaugurated, the death of the slaying limb grew and grew, until the king died out from not taking their rightful place as king over the Maldurians. The Maldurians began to chant in low tones in a language that was unbeknown to any species but their own. Terran held his fist high in the air and the Maldurians echoed their chants, the Deranged Men around them faltering in fear.

Terran glanced to Vince who held a light smile on his face. Terran could feel the light of the moon now shining bright as the sun upon his body. The Maldurian gods were shining upon him, the rightful Maldur king was finally arrived. Terran dismounted from the back of the dragon and stood in the middle of the enemy's lines that were spread throughout the great plains outside the castle's south wall. The moment of pure delight was splintered in a second. A squeal shrilled so loud from the dragon behind him he fell to the ground and so did his new people. The dragon shook and squealed, and Vince fell from its back, paralyzed. In Vince's hand was the second charm, the Valligian Tusk. Terran saw the green blood of a dragon stained upon the sharp end of the Valligian Tusk, and his eyes widened as the dragon roared in agony and its body filled to the max with fire and heat. The heat was so intense that Terran thought he had entered the gates of Ral'tor's eternal dungeon. The dragon imploded and suddenly where there was a dragon, bits and pieces of scaly skin were flying through the air and littering the ground like a layer of dust. Terran stared at Vince in utter disbelief.

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"What have you done?" asked Terran to Vince.

Vince's last gasp of energy forced the words from his mouth, "You're a King now, so lead." Vince rolled over onto the ground and his wipe gaped open and his eyelids closed slowly.

The front gates opened and out came charging Weptswur's army. Terran stared from afar as Fallon and Fintan led the line on horsbeack, side by side. King Fallon's horse shone its white coat bright in the darkness and together he and Fintan slashed out at the men who shielded the battering ram, knocking the ram and its men underneath it off into the moat below. The Deranged Men put up their last stand they were caught flat footed. The momentum of the charge took the Deranged Men by surprise and the wave of knights, peasants, and lords caught them by surprise. The battlefield became bloody with war and Terran wasted no time leading his newly recognized people. Terran felt his skin grow cold and pale and the crown of a King sprout through his temple. His Maldurians looked to him and he commanded them.

"Took the enemy from the rear, release your arrows upon any Deranged Man that still moves, and put torch to the siege engines. Destroy the trebuchuets, and most of all—have no mercy, or you will better wish you had!"

The Maldurians formed their own tidy lines of archers with a row of neatly packed shield men in front and suddenly the Deranged Men found themselves sandwiched between two armies, and the slaughter was imminent. The Deranged Men were cut down by blades and picked off with arrows, and soon the all that remained to take down were those Deranged Men who had sieged the castle walls and even they began to fear captivity so many of them jumped to their own death from the walls and down into the abyss of the moat where near a hundred corpses floated. Others fled, and a few surrendered, but by the end of the day the Maldurians were the last ones left standing from the enemy's original mass of men, but it was imminent that the Maldurians reconciled with the species whom they had protected for hundreds of years by upholding the curse of the meadows.

Hours passed and Terran led the Maldurians away towards freedom. They would return to Mestrane were they were destined as a people to dwell. King Steed was nowhere to be found, but they knew now that he was never to be allowed back inside the borders of Mestrane's great secret—the land beyond the meadows.

Terran gave his last farewell to Fallon, Fintan, and Vince. Although it was Hildebran he missed most and tried to push from his mind. He looked into the reflection of a puddle was by the side of the moat and he was reminded of himself. He was a new man, he was a Maldurian now. The times of old has passed away, and he would return to those meadows for the first time since he had been a King's squire. Terran the Slayer no longer, I am King Terran, protector of the meadows. Defying King of the land beyond the meadows.

Terran passed Vince one last time before he departed, "I have one last question, Vince. Why did you do it? Why did you slay the dragon?"

"A dragon is a creature created by dark magic. You cannot know the loyalties of such a creature, and it had served its purpose. It has one weakness, and I had the Valligian tusk and so it was fate that it died at my hands then."

"Ah, I see. You should know you always have my blessing should you choose to visit the meadows. Although I cannot let you through, as you know." The two shared a quick laugh at the latter comment. Terran turned and away he went, the long trail of Maldurians trailing behind him with their golden tunics.

The sting of battle passed and Fallon and those who battled had gone inside what remained of the castle to pay their respects to those who had lost their lives and to see that loved ones were okay. Sounds of grief and crying told Fintan that the fires had reached the dungeons and the basement where the woman and children had been hiding. Many had gotten away safe, but it was the ones who mourned that wailed the loudest.

Fintan sat with his knees to his chest amid the rubble and Vince warily pulled up beside and took a seat beside him.

"What is it, master?" asked Vince.

Fintan shook his head, "He got away."

"Who, Steed?" asked Vince, to which Fintan nodded his head.

"Then we shall find him," Vince sat staring into the orange traces of light from the rising sun ahead of them.

"Not now. He is no longer the king of any people; his people are dead. Now we rest, Mestrane is safe again. The realm is safe again, Vince."

But he was wrong.