Adora watched the Primordial, waiting for an indication as to whether he would attack physically, or magically. A soft breeze whistled in through fallen stonework and ruffled her ebony hair, tossing strands across her cheeks.

Pazuzu vanished from her sight.

‘Wha—?’

A thunderclap blew out the walls of the servants’ corridor, and knocked everyone sprawling. Debris rained down in choking clouds of dust, the acrid tang of shattered stone filling the air. Jagged fragments littered the ground, the sharp edges glinting faintly in the dim light. Holes widened in the crumbling walls.

The corner where the remanent of the wall met the floor caught her as she rolled. Her breath left her in a pained rush and her skull thudded against the brick, the sound seeming to come from inside her head.

Her eyes watered as she tried to make out what had happened. As the blurriness faded, and her head throbbed, she could make out a masculine, silvery, poisonous purple-green metal-clad form standing and holding Pazuzu in the air by the stomach as blue-white electricity danced over his body. He had scalloped edges on his forearms and ram-like horns curled from the sides of long, sable hair.

The air shimmered faintly around him, charged with an unnatural energy that made the dust swirl in slow, deliberate patterns. The flickering light seemed to bend toward him, casting long, distorted shadows across the wreckage. Cracks spiderwebbed through the ground beneath his feet, faintly glowing with an eerie blue-green hue.

‘Huh-how…?’

The fog in her mind made her thoughts feel solid and heavy, as if they didn’t want to move. Her headache radiated through her like a storm. Each blink felt like an ice pick stabbing her eyeballs.

The being launched Pazuzu into the air with ease and then punched him with the other hand. His metallic armor hissed with the movements.

The Primordial flew through the air with a whistling sound and exploded out the wall behind the fallen Soo-jau’s draconic body. Stone clattered to the ground as the dragon roared from additional pain.

As stonework crashed to the ground, the newcomer vanished from her sight before blinking beside the bleeding dragon.

Soo-jau raised her long, serpentine neck, her iridescent sales catching the light from the fires around the damaged castle. “Deh-dark…” Blood dripped from between her sharp teeth as she struggled to speak. “Wahlk…”

The words rasped out in broken syllables, her once-elegant voice now weak and strained. A tremor rolled through her, and she collapsed back, her massive frame thudding against the fractured ground. The impact sent tremors through the rubble-strewn floor. Blood seeped in dark rivulets from her torn side, pooling around her claws and staining the jagged rocks beneath her as her chest heaved from her exertion.

‘DarkWalker? Is that what she was trying to say?’ Adora’s pulse quickened, the fragmented name striking her like a blow. The sheer effort it had taken Soo-jau to speak told her the name mattered — and that it terrified the dragon. ‘Why does that creature scare a dragon?’ She shook her head, setting the world to spinning. ‘I’ve got to get up.’ Adora paused, panting. ‘She will die if I don’t heal her.’ She pushed herself to shaking hands and knees, locking her elbows which kept trying to fold under her weight. ‘I hurt so bad.’ She sucked in air. ‘But, that’s not as important.’

The stone beneath her palms felt cold and uneven, slick with her own blood and the dust of the destruction from the DarkWalker’s appearance and throwing of the Primordial down the corridor. The air stung her throat with each ragged breath, carrying the metallic scent of blood mingled with scorched earth. Every movement sent tiny shards of rock skittering away, their faint echoes lost in the distant rumble of falling stone.

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As she crawled the hallway, splinters of masonry stabbed her hands and sliced her knees. The utter silence except for Soo-jau’s harsh breathing was worrisome. ‘Where did everyone go?’

The crowd of people who’d been pushing and screaming to get out earlier were gone. She hadn’t even noticed when they’d disappeared.

‘Did they run back to the dining hall, or were they killed?’

Tacky wetness stung her scraped palms. A glance down revealed the body of the servant Pazuzu had dropped when the DarkWalker had attacked. Blood had pooled around his shoulders from the ragged stump of his neck. Other than the gore, he reminded her of a toy a minor noble’s daughter had broken when they were children.

When she hadn’t gotten her way in a game they’d been playing, she’d twisted the doll’s head off in a fit of pique. The girl’s father had punished her while Adora’s own father had said not even being royalty could protect her from the whims of others. The attack by Pazuzu was a painful reminder of that lesson.

Adora pushed herself to her feet, trying to ignore the screaming of her body. Her legs quivered with every step, the bruised muscles threatening to give way beneath her. Her heartbeat pounded in her ears, a steady drumbeat of will. ‘My hurts are unimportant.’ The words had become almost a mantra. ‘I must save Lady Soo-jau.’ On shaky legs, she reached the bleeding dragon, gritting her teeth and dropped to her knees.

When she placed her hands on her side, the blue dragon’s immense head whipped around to lock and intense gaze on the queen. While not as fast as before her injury, she was still capable of defending herself from a human.

The queen raised her hands. “Easy, Lady Soo-jau. I only wish to heal you.”

The Vaush-Tauric closed her eyes and curled her neck over her shoulders above the great wound.

‘Great Kellün, grant me your favor that I may heal this mighty dragon of her hurts.’ After her prayer, Adora waited for the great warmth to flow through her again.

Nothing happened. She opened her eyes and cast them skyward. “Lord Kellün?”

“H-he’s not answering, ch-child?” Her stammering voice came with a guttural growl. Her claws, tensing with each throb of pain, dug into the marble floor like it were butter. The injury bubbled blood with each rasping breath.

Adora shook her head. “No. I don’t understand it.”

“In-nn,” the dragon panted, “eons past, a guh-god stopped answer-ring…” She trailed off, wheezing. A moment later, “whuh-when they-they fell, or…” Her head slid down her body and thudded to the floor.

“No, no, no.” Adora whimpered. “You can’t die.” The queen threw her head back and screamed. “Someone, please, help me!”

The air shattered with a deafening crack, and debris rattled against the fractured walls. Adora flinched, pressing her hands to her ears as the force rolled over her. When she opened her eyes, her breath caught in her throat.

She recoiled when she met the skull-like visage of the DarkWalker. Intense, electric blue orbs stared at her. Shadows over its cheekbones danced in the flickering light from its eye sockets. The ram-like horns at its temples enhanced the creature’s monstrous appearance.

She bit back a scream as it took a step toward her. The ground under its foot crumbled and dust swirled up and around its legs. She scrambled to her feet, nearly falling over them as she rushed to stand.

The DarkWalker’s head moved as if he were searching for something, reminding her of a dog.

It reached out a clawed, skeletal finger and lightly touched the center of her forehead.

She froze as what felt like lightning shot through her body from her head to her toes. Liquid heat ran through her body, centered on her core. She moaned as she stiffened.

“I hope I’m not interrupting.”

The voice oozed into the air, sweet and venomous, cutting through the charged silence like a blade dipped in honey.

Her eyes flew open as a stentorian growl reverberated through the air.

The DarkWalker stood, legs wide, body low, and arms wide, ready to grapple its challenger. The air vibrated with the sounds of warning flowing from within it.

The bloodied form of the Primordial weaved as if his balance was shot. Gore poured from a gaping hole where an eye had been and his beak had fractures running through it, the tip gone. A couple of his wings were missing as well.

Despite his injuries, Pazuzu oozed menace and danger. The very moonlight retreated before the might of his shadows.

The DarkWalker pointed to the wounded dragon, the silent command crystal clear.

Adora reached for Soo-jau’s trembling form as an icy fire radiated through her. ‘What in the Abyss is this?’

“We can’t have this.” Pazuzu’s saccharine voice ripped through the fraught silence, and he lazily waved his hand in a downward motion.

A ripple of the void blasted through the air and sliced through the Vaush-Tauric along her fore shoulders and neck.

A torrent of blood rushed over Adora, knocking her back, as the now dead dragon’s body fell in three parts, the formerly iridescent scales dull.

The queen stared with bulging eyes at the corpse. Tears fell unbidden as she sat back, frozen.