Lily trembled where she was, her fear causing the muscles in her abdomen to clench. Maintain dignity no matter what happens.

“Wha…” Lily swallowed. “What can I do for you?”

“I need to know who the ministers are, and who the real servants are,” the demoness replied.

Lily hesitated. If she answered, she would put someone in danger, whether servant or minister—someone unable to handle it, or someone valuable and still likely unable to handle it. An innocent under any circumstance.

The demoness laughed. “You’re a minister, aren’t you?”

Lily shook her head no, but the demoness grabbed her by the back of the neck. “Hold still!”

Lily froze, and the demoness closed her eyes and ran her hand across Lily’s face, and then down her front. Lily shuddered at the touch.

Before the demoness could go any further, however, there was a sudden sense of magic—hidden magic unconstrained by the rules most operated by, a magic of the dark places.

Lily screamed as the demoness’ arms bunched and the knife flashed toward her eye, but a hand pushed the knife to the side, and it slid along her scalp to the side, slicing her long elven ear and cutting a swatch of silver hair off as well.

But it didn’t go into her eye, or brain.

Blood poured from the wound as Zir pushed the knife further away, bringing his axe around with his other hand in a swing for the demoness’ leg. She let go of Lily, stepped in and turned just so, and let the handle of the axe hit her leg—not the blade. Shadow flared around her own leg and the hit did absolutely nothing.

Except free Lily, who touched herself and trigger a powerful regeneration. She felt some of her wound heal, but not all—mark of an Entropic wound that resisted healing. Zir grabbed Lily and she felt magic trying to take her to a cold, dark place. She had never personally experienced Zir’s shadow travel power but knew what it was and allowed the magic to take her into the shadows. She let it.

Lily had the briefest sense of being a shadow that sped past the crack under the door before she rose, shivering from that lightless place, in the hallway on the other side of the door. Zir was already running, and Lily felt herself being yanked along.

“C’mon, princess!” Zir said as he dragged her along.

Lily ran, but her pregnancy made her slow—not as slow as she would have been before getting multiple levels, but still slower than she was when not pregnant. It was hindering her.

Lily put that aside and touched Zir and gave him a regeneration as well, which he didn’t acknowledge as he pulled her along. She felt another surge of magic and accepted, and they were suddenly in the late evening outside the mansion the government was using, running toward the main square.

“We can stop now, we’re in public,” Lily said, gasping as she tried to force her awkward body to huge speeds.

Zir shook his head no. “We’ve seen her—and she has to know about the Diamond Throne. So, she’ll silence us before we can use it. I’d bet gold against copper she’s about to try and murder us.”

Even as he spoke, the demoness appeared in front of them, as if from thin air. Her knife flashed out at Zir, who dropped into the shadow. At the same time, she push-kicked Lily in her knee, the one planted forward as she ran. Lily screamed as everything bent and broke from the kick and she fell forward over her shattered leg, twisting to avoid plating baby first. The pain wrenched at her so hard her head spun as she rolled to her back.

But she had been hurt worse—nearly died, twice—and was used to it, to a degree. She maintained her illusion of perfection and kept herself rolling from the fight, giving the regeneration that was still running time to heal her leg—and given how powerful a healer Lily was, it would only be about six seconds before she was utterly fine, since that blow hadn’t had the Entropy magic on it.

As Lily’s leg snapped straight and healed, the demoness spun in place, lashing out. Zir rose from the shadows into her attack but still caught it on the flat of his axe. He was pushed back and off balance, and the demoness stutter stepped forward as Zir stumbled and then push-kicked him in the stomach—but a knife flashed from her heel as she did, and Zir grunted, spraying blood from his mouth.

“A rescue!” Lily screamed as loud as she could. There weren’t many people out at this time of night, but there were some.

The demoness stepped over and kicked Lily in the jaw so hard the world went briefly black.

Some slight but indeterminant time later, she woke, gasping, feeling utterly fine in Zir’s arms as he ran.

He half-dropped her to her feet, and she briefly stumbled before joining him.

“You got fat,” he commented with a sardonic half-smile that somehow reminded her of Leo.

“Ass,” she replied. “What happened?”

“You were kicked unconscious—your whole face shattered. But your regeneration is gods powerful and fixed you even while you were unconscious. I grabbed you, took you into the shadows, and now we’re running again. Saying that took about as much time as the entire event you missed.”

Before Lily could reply, magic filled the air. She screamed “duck!”

Zir slid and a knife went through the space his head had been, sailing past him.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“We can’t run forever and it’s seconds before she kills us if we stop running,” Zir said. “You have a plan?”

Lily thought, praying to Iluvin Eturia for a plan, something like her soon-to-be husband would come up with. I’m as smart as him, I can do this! He always found a way! I’m not the shitty baby sister mom thinks I am! I’m the almost-queen of…

Mom.

It was a desperate plan, but it was at least a plan.

“Take us to Elgin Isle!” Lily called out, and Zir nodded. He grabbed Lily and shifted again through shadows.

When they reappeared he was talking. “Look, we need about six minutes at a dead run, and I can only remove about thirty seconds of that by using my shadow powers—less if you want me to be able to fight at the end. I don’t have the bottomless essence pools you and Leo run.”

“She fights like you on steroids, right?” Lily asked, her mind going.

Zir nodded as they ran.

“So move to the center of the roadway. Less hiding places, and more people can see us. I’ll call for a rescue from time to time, try and get any other allies that might be out late. If she wants to not be seen she’ll need to maintain powers herself, or run along the buildings, slowing how often she can pull ahead and launch an assault. I know it’s against your own fighting instincts, but please just keep us as exposed as possible.”

Zir snorted as they ran. “Your right, that’s a hard biscuit to choke down. But I’ll do it your way.”

They ran, occasionally dodging a thrown knife that had been hurled from the buildings along he main thoroughfare, and once taking another agonizing slash as they went. People did occasionally try and run with them, helping, but for the most part her citizens stats couldn’t keep up, even with Lily’s pregnancy—and they were lost for sure whenever Zir needed to shadow shift. It was a nightmare that would haunt Lily for the rest of her days.

But about three minutes later they reached the bridge from the Eastern shore of the Blue River across to Elgin Isle.

“Dead run,” Lily said, panting wildly and not stopping. “There’s nothing to hide from here, and few citizens. She might try and stop us here.”

Lily hit herself and Zir with another regenerate each and ran across the bridge.

Even with shadowshifts, it was another three agonizing minutes of sprinting across, but the demoness didn’t attack them as they crossed. At this point, Lily did hope she had followed.

Once they reached the island, Lily turned and ran diagonally toward the railing that stopped people from falling fifteen feet to the beach.

Dragon Beach.

The demoness appeared, but Zir had been ready. He ducked under as her knife flashed and touched Lily’s leg, and she accepted the magic that pulled them into the shadows. It was a straight shot, however, and they appeared in the air, fifteen feet above the beach.

Zir grabbed her and positioned so she landed on top of him, his shadow absorbing some of the blow—although she wasn’t sure it was that much better than the sand. The wind was knocked from her, but even as the demoness appeared, knives out, and dropped at them Zir shifted them again.

“Where to?!” He yelled as they tromped through the sand, trying to outrun the demoness—who wasn’t even hiding anymore—across the moonlit beach.

“Hugh’s cave!” she shouted.

They shifted, then shifted again. The demoness shifted as well, and on the third shift she got lucky—she slashed with a shadow-covered knife and Zir’s arm went flying. He screamed, his young teenage voice going falsetto with the pain. But he kept the presence of mind to grab the axe of dwarfish rulership with his other hand and shift them again.

When they reappeared, his arm was already growing back. It may not be as flashy, but in my own way I am incredibly powerful, Lily though as she watched the new arm forming and growing from the stub of the old. Although it was leaving parts unfixed—that knife had carried Entropic magic.

But the race was over, for better or worse. He had reached her destination.

She stood before the cave and screamed out, “Ann, it’s Lily! Mother of Leo’s child. As he saved your son and you in turn, I beg you to save his child now!”

The Demoness appeared again, and Zir’s arm wasn’t regrown. She hurled a knife that stuck into Lily’s leg, and Lily collapsed to the ground.

The demoness stalked closer, easily parrying Zir’s one-armed strike and then kicking him back. She spoke in perfect middle averian. “Leo’s leman. Perfect. Kruegar will pay me greatly for your head.”

There was a sudden flash, and the demoness was briefly turned into a silhouette surround by a brilliant flare. After, she hit the ground, smoking and trembling as electricity coursed through her body.

Ann, Hugh’s mother, a twenty-five foot bronze scaled dragon, came running from the cave entrance. The ground trembled as she splashed through the shallow water. She was about five tones in weight, perhaps more now that the scales that had been flenshed from her had mostly regrown, even if they were patchy.

“You leave Hugh’s friends alone!” the behemoth screamed as she charged.

The demoness, still alive after the breath weapon attack, shifted away as Ann’s claws came down hard on the ground where the demoness had lain.

The demoness pointed her knife at Ann from about twenty feet away. “I, Ezreni Blacktouch, hired assassin of Kruegar Bloodhands, who was the successor to Grakith demon-born, will kill all three of you and claim your bounties.”

Ann didn’t respond, simply leaping through the air in a pounce, like some demented reptilian tiger—a twenty-five foot tiger. Ezreni shifted again and Ann slammed into the beach, throwing sand everywhere. Ezreni appeared at her side and slashed her blades along the dragon’s side. Ann roared in pain and rage and turned, but Ezreni kept with her.

Lily ran up and touched Ann, starting the regenerate, but Ann stepped on her as she kept turning, trying to reach Ezreni, who was slashing away—and some of the wounds were unable to be healed. Lily screamed as her legs were both pulped beneath the dragon, hitting herself with regenerate again as she almost passed out. The dragon mercifully took another step and then stopped, her tail coming around the other way.

Ezreni was slammed against the dragon’s side, and Lily heard things crack as she lay in agony, trying to heal.

Zir appeared next to her, axe still in hand, just as Ezreni shifted away from Ann. Ezreni’s shadow pushed Zir’s strike away, but she was knocked off balance enough that her slash at Lily’s prone form missed.

She disappeared again.

For a moment, Lily wondered if it was over.

Then Ann screamed, loud and long, and threw her head up. Ezreni flew into the air from the dragon’s toss, blood trailing after her, and Ann collapsed to the ground, pawing at her face. Lily could see that both her eyes had been shattered, and blood and viscera wept from the sockets, even as gangrene and black energy played across them.

Ezreni blinded her!

Zir turned his head rapidly, searching, and then shifted into the shadow. At the same time, Ezreni hit a height of about fifty feet of apogee and then her shadow speared toward the ground as well.

She appeared just above Ann and dropped, her knives out and shadow extended from them. She came down, hit Ann’s neck, and dragged her knives down. Blood fountained from the dragon, who almost totally collapsed, missing Lily by mere inches. But Zir had finally predicted Ezreni’s movements perfectly, and as she hit the ground, he hit her in the lower back with the axe of dwarvish lords—which was an artifact level weapon, far more powerful than Heartseeker, her husband’s sword.

Ezreni half screamed and was left with mouth gaping open as the blade tore through her back, bisecting her entirely with a glint of light magic. Her torso sailed through the air, hit Ann’s side, and fell to the ground.

Lily made three levels as experience flooded into her.

But her mind was on their companion, her stomach clenched with fear. She reached out, touching the unmoving dragon whose neck fountained blood.

She molded Wyld magic and pushed with all her might, and breathed a prayer to Iluvin Eturia when the magic took hold. Nothing dead could be healed, and nothing that Lily healed died after the heal, absent some other, newer trauma. Her stomach clenched again.

Wait… not her stomach.

“Guys… I don’t mean to ruin the moment, but we have another emergency.”