“Father, we can’t just leave you here!” cried princess Jessica as she held onto her dying father. Her whole body shaking as she tried uselessly to block the blood seeping out from beneath the king’s chest.
“You must,” choked the king, blood gurgling up from his throat out through his mouth and onto the ground. The king stared up at his daughter, a disheveled girl who was barely of age. She was all he had left in this world. His wife the queen had died in labour, leaving both him and his daughter alone in this world. She had made him promise to protect her always. He had kept his promise up until now. His eyes filled with sorrow knowing he no longer could protect her from the dark world anymore. He cried inside, the pain of having to leave his child behind chaining his heart. But this was no time to sulk. He needed to act fast. They were almost here. Using the last of his strength, he held up his hand, grabbed hold of the boy crouching next to him. “Shawn, protect her” he pleaded shoving a leather poach into his hands. “Never let them get their hands on the contents of this poach” he coughed, blood spewing everywhere.
Shawn looked down at the dying king, trying bitterly to hold back his own tears. He looked from the king then to the princess and finally down to the poach in his hands. He swallowed hard and nodded his head. He knew his duties. He was the last of the standing guards. His duties were to protect the kingdom and the royal family at all cost. The king was to far gone to be saved, the kingdom had fallen, but the princess, she must live on, for a future to exist. She was too important to lose. The contents of the poach must also be extremely important if the king would risk everything to protect it.
The king smiled. Lowering his hand to the ground. He traced a symbol with his blood. The symbol glowed as he finished drawing. Under his breath the king chanted a spell, a silver light left his hands falling into the symbol.
Shawn stared at the symbol. It was a simple ordinarily looking ruin, yet it was also intricate. It was not a spell he had seen before. What spell did the king cast? Shawn knew a fair bit about magic, he was an apprentice guardian and guardians were the protectors of the realm. All guardians were charmers.
As the ruin glowed Jessica screamed. Shawn looked up from the ruin and saw the kings head tilt, flopping lifelessly into the princess’s arms. Shawn’s inside turned, grief took over him. Next to him the princess rocked the king’s lifeless body back and forth. Her face burrowed into the dead king’s chest. Her throat croaking with inhuman sounds.
The door to the great room burst open. Shawn looked up in alarm. The enemy! They had arrived. He had to get the princess away. Suddenly the room grew bitterly cold, too cold to be normal. A crackling came from behind where the secret exit stood. The last escape path they had. The place where they were trying to get to before the king got wounded by the black mage that followed them here. The black mage that the king killed before he to went to the great beyond.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Shawn glanced behind. His heart stopped. The entire back wall was encased in ice. No! Shawn screamed in his head. There was no way out. He looked down at the princess, she was still holding on to the dead king, lost in her sorrows. There was no way to get her out of here. Was this the end?
A figure draped in a black robe walked slowly into the room. His eyes glowed dark red as he gazed at them. Shawn shivered as their gazes met. Shawn knew who he was. His legs gave way, causing him to faltered backwards onto the ground next to the princess. This man was no other then the one who destroyed Lugan. The kingdom in which he swore to protect. This man was Ishamel, the dark wizard of old. The oldest of dark wizards.
Ishamel stoped by the entrance to the room and smiled. “So even the king could not withstand my spells. How very disappointing.” He sighed gazing at Shawn's hands. As his gaze caught sight of the poach, his faced glowed, “Ahh, is that where the old man stashed the crystals?" He asked taking a step forward.
Shawn tightened his grip on the poach as if it would fly out of his hands at any moment. He tried to back away but found himself unable to move. He looked down at his legs. They were encased in ice. The ice from the back wall had crawled up from behind, freezing his lower body while he wasn’t paying attention. Shawn tried to think of his training, but his mind was blank. Only terror gripped him. He could not think at all.
Ishameal was almost in front of them. Shawn had to do something, anything. Then he saw the symbol on the ground. Suddenly he knew what to do. He had no idea how he knew, but he just knew. With all his strength he grabbed the princess, who was still sobbing over her dead fathers corpse. He placed the poach onto the faintly glowing ruin.
The moment the poach touched the ruin, the ice encasing Shawn melted. Red hot scorching flames circled them, blocking Ishameal from getting to them. At first Ishameal did not think much of the flames. He thought they were just a last effort the of boy to deter him. He laughed as he summoned cold air, accompanied with freezing ice, trying to snuff out the flames. Soon he realized, the flames were no ordinary flames. He backed away fearing that something had gone awry. But it was to late, the flames had stretched behind him, blocking his exit.
Ishameal screamed in outrage as he realized what had happened. The boy had somehow summoned the holy flames of Solomon. He struggled and cast every spell he could muster, but the flames engulfed him. Swallowing him up in an instant. Ishameal screamed in disbelief. The flames slowly froze him in time. As he succumbed to the flames, he cast one last spell. A roar of chaos erupted from within him, spreading out from his body until it shrouded the entire kingdom.
Shawn watched everything unfold in disbelief. The spell that the king had cast in his final moments was none other then the holy spell of Solomon. The highest of binding spells. A spell that called forth the holiest of flames, the Flames of Solomon. No matter who or what, the flames would freeze and encase them in time and space for 1000 years. No man, beast or spirit can escape the bindings once it has been activated. It was a very powerful spell.
The king had finished the spell but it was not activated. Shawn was the one who activated it. He did not truly understand how it happened but somehow or someone had reached into his mind and told him to do this. This was their only chance. This was the only path to the future, even if it was 1000 years into the future. Maybe in 1000 years someone or something will be able to save them. This was all he could hope for as the flames engulfed both him and the princes, freezing them for a millennium.