We fight, we fall,
duty calls, it calls,
say we choose, but it's no choice at all,
duty calls, it calls
- T. Profitt & L. Strahm

-----❅-----

- Victorine -

-----❅-----

The sun had disappeared behind the horizon and the last light of the day was completely extinguished when land came into view.

In the distance, I already spotted the flying sentinels of this side of the river by their shining swords. The closer we came, the more closely I examined their leathery wings and scaly lizard skin. The reptilian eyes fixed us closely. Never before had I seen an ejchew at such close range.

They watched our dragons closely, but then let them pass. When we docked at the harbor, the shipmen began to carry some crates from the deck onto the land. The eyes of the ejchews followed our every step.

After all, that was their job. To watch that no people entered the sacred lands.

I looked at Nicolas, who was watching what was happening, alert but also relaxed. He didn't seem to be worried at all, which reassured me. What did upset me, however, was the fact that we were going below deck as a full complement of soldiers.

Vane and a few others were putting up the last of eight crates. Then it dawned on me. Each of us was to climb into one.

"You're human smugglers?" it escaped me distraught, and panic overtook me. How was this going to work? The ejchews would cut us open.

Grinning, captain Vane looked at me. "Did you think I was a decent man?"

I didn't feel like laughing. Dead, I would not be able to rescue my sister from Tenebris. If I was dead, then she was lost forever.

"Don't worry," Nicolas reassured me. "We have everything planned."

His voice sounded calm and firm. Carefree. Assured. I looked into his eyes and saw no doubt. It almost put me at ease, almost.

Some soldier cleared his throat. A very bad feeling was brewing in my stomach. But Vane stepped forward and took one of my hands. "Don't be afraid. Nothing has ever happened before. This isn't the first time we've done this." My hand was wet with sweat, but I didn't care.

All I could think about was Crescentia's face. But what choice did I have? Either I would risk this, or I would never get to Tenebris with even a hint of a chance.

Vane lifted my hand and placed a feather-light kiss on it. "I wish you the best of luck, Highness Victorine. And a joyous reunion to us in the distant future."

I didn't care what he wished. I looked deep into his eyes and narrowly focused on how confident he felt about this. He hadn't lied. Nothing had ever happened before and this wasn't the first time. It was the third. I took a deep breath. My sister's life depended on this.

"No matter what happens, you all need to stay very still," Vane was still warning us all.

Finally, I climbed into the box. Then the lid was closed over me and I sat in complete darkness. It took longer than I thought before I was finally lifted. But maybe a single second just seemed like an eternity of uncertainty.

I hardly dared to breathe. And yet I had to let my oxygen in and out slowly, so as not to make a loud, gasping breath in a moment.

I was carried on and on. Until at some point I was put down again.

I heard and felt that something or someone was approaching the box. It was probably someone from the troops to let me out.

The lid was lifted.

And I almost let out a scream that would have cost us all our lives. Two luminous reptilian eyes peered down at me, looking right into my own eyes.

My hand clenched over my mouth. He would kill me, but maybe the others still had a chance. Maybe Nicolas would still make it to Tenebris somehow. Search for my sister after Cephas was dead. Maybe he would take her back to Spero. Home.

I clenched my eyes as my brain clung to that hope in the one second that had passed.

Then I heard a clatter. When I opened my eyes again, all I saw was darkness. I was alive. I was breathing.

My box was lifted again and I could hardly believe what had just happened. They carried me further and further away, so that I started to worry again.

Then I was set down and heard by the clumsy sounds how more boxes were put down next to me. I heard some footsteps, which slowly became quieter and quieter and fell silent. Then nothing could be heard except for my shallow breathing, which I tried to calm.

My body was trembling. I hardly dared to move any part of my body, so my leg fell asleep and tingled terribly.

It took what felt like an eternity before I finally heard anything other than my breathing and my beating heart. The rattling was so quiet and I feared that someone had opened his crate lid next to us. Despite more noises, I sat still.

Then my lid was opened and Tryphosa looked down at me. "You can come out," she whispered. Then her face disappeared, giving me a view of the star-filled night sky partially obscured by tall treetops.

Carefully, I stepped out of the box and shook out my tingling leg. We stood in the dark forest. I saw no river, no ship, and no ejchews. Only trees and the silhouettes of people from our troop of soldiers.

It was cold and windy, despite the trees protecting us. I looked up, but did not spot any dragons anywhere.

Without further words, we shouldered our luggage and weapons. Then we went after Nicolas, who held a map in his left hand and lit it with flames from his right hand.

With a few brisk steps, I was with him. "What was that all about?", I whispered angrily. "What if I had screamed? Or attacked him?"

"I hope you wouldn't be stupid enough to attack an ejchew," he whispered back. He turned back to the map and squinted his eyes, looking at the small hole I had poked in it as a marker of the next waypoint on deck.

We were so close already.

"How the hell do you blackmail an ejchew, anyway?", I inquired quietly.

"Not blackmail. Do you always suspect pure evil from me? Or suspect that the other creatures have good intentions? We bribed him."

Bribed? A guardian of the holy land behind Fluxus Profundum?

"What the hell do you bribe an ejchew with?"

"What the hell did you see in the siren's eyes?" asked Nicolas back rhetorically, indicating that the discussion was over.

I remembered the cold, cruel feeling when I had looked into those sad eyes. Instantly I got goose bumps all over my body. I felt cold metal on my wrists, the rattle of iron chains. Heard screams. Felt racing adrenaline at the memory.

I quickly shook the thoughts away by shaking my head. Then I began to pay a little more attention to our surroundings. There were no wars in the Holy Land without kingdoms, but that didn't mean it was safe here.

Slowly, I unsheathed my sword because I thought a close attack was more likely here than a long-range attack.

You could feel the tension of the others as we walked on. For hours we walked through the forest without anything happening. Now and then we heard screams in the distance, far from human sounds.

I felt relieved when the first rays of sunlight finally fought their way through the trees. I felt even more relief when we reached the edge of the forest.

It was beautiful. We were standing at the beginning of a huge, green, hilly area. Flowers and pollen of magical plants were flying everywhere. Small fox-like creatures looked at us curiously and took refuge in their holes in the ground as we stepped closer.

The fire in Nicolas' hands had gone out, but the fire in his eyes had not. For some reason, he sensed we were not far away. Despite hours of hiking and beautiful views, he pushed us onward.

The sun shone down on us warmly. Still, I did not take off my helmet. We could not be deceived by the beauty. There were creatures that could dig through the earth and drag us into our graves.

I wondered where our dragons were. But I also knew that they could find us again without any trouble. So I should worry about that the least.

We hiked on, allowing ourselves only a few breaks. I carved another point on the map and realized it was the second to last.

At the next point we would have arrived at our destination. Nicolas sensed that. Probably from my nervousness. When we arrived at our destination I had to somehow make sure that he would continue to take me.

I was immensely relieved when our dragons returned and let us fly along on their backs. My feet were able to rest, but I could no longer allow my head to rest.

What I had seen in the eyes of the spy, I had thought was a legend. But there were so many signs that Cephas thought it was not only a mystery, but his last chance. To finish what he had started.

Then we spotted the mountains on the horizon. Pointed and stony they rose. The sacred mountains of the holy land.

The beauty was breathtaking, but I couldn't enjoy it one bit. I felt sick at the thought that Cephas might have beaten us to it.

And we would find everything empty.

By the time we reached the beginning of the mountains and the second to last of my markers, it was dusk again. Nicolas decided to look for a sheltered spot somewhere for the night.

I surveyed the mountain ranges and looked over to the horizon. Despite the indescribably beautiful view, I had no strength to enjoy it. My stomach was cramping. No one knew how close we actually were to our destination. But it was smarter to rest for another night, despite our time constraints. If we were really going to face Cephas soon, we had to be prepared.

Someone spotted a small cave. We flew toward it, while the uneasy feeling inside me intensified. I clung to Deidamia, feeling her warm skin and the strong, sure movements of her body. All too soon, we had arrived. The dragons set us down and flew off again to find food or a place to sleep themselves. With a shallow breath, I watched them go.

I let the others go ahead to check the cave for safety. My head ached because I could not find a solution to my situation. Nicolas was so cold towards me. It was obvious that I was just a nuisance and a hindrance to him. Obvious that he considered me an enemy that couldn't be trusted.

And he would want to prevent the possibility of invading the most powerful kingdom in the country with an enemy at his back. As soon as he would learn what we were looking for and what Cephas had planned, he would leave me behind.

Carefully, I looked at his back and shoulders, which were even broader because of his armor, while he lit the cave for us with the flames from his hands.

I had a hard time sizing up this man. Any insight into his soul had been ice cold. The only thing flaming red in him was feelings of revenge against Cephas. The blood he demanded.

As I thought of it, I also felt my rage revive within me. Cephas kingdom had murdered my parents and claimed countless other victims. Cephas had caused me the greatest pain I had ever felt in my life. As soon as the first opportunity presented itself, I would cut off Cephas' head and end his reign of terror.

But my blind feelings of revenge were slowed down by my concern for Crescentia. Now, as I pondered Cephas' plan, I wondered if it was not already too late for my sister.

My foot got caught on a stone. I stumbled and tripped despite trying to keep my balance. My knees hit the ground and I caught myself with my hands. The armor absorbed most of the damage, but the fall still shot through me.

The clatter of metal echoed throughout the cave. Half of the troops stared at me, the other toward the entrance or our path forward in alarm. I gritted my teeth and scrambled to my feet. For a few seconds we remained motionless in silence. Then we continued walking cautiously.

My knees and palms ached. But that was the price of my carelessness. My thoughts would not improve the situation. I had to stay focused, stay purposeful, and move my grief back to the back of my mind.

When we reached the end of the small cave, we settled down, exhausted. The ground was damp and freezing cold. I thought longingly of Deidamia's protective, warm body and her large wings covering my body.

I took off only a small part of my armor and curled up in a ball in a corner to benefit as much as possible from my body heat. My eyes fell shut, though I tried to keep them open. But in no less than a few seconds, the darkness had caught up with me.

❅

When I was awakened, it was pitch dark and even colder in the cave. The icy dampness of the floor had drawn into my muscles. My eyes needed some time to adjust to the darkness.

I put on the rest of my armor and drank my last sip of water. My dry throat thanked me. Then I fully armed myself and very carefully walked past the sleeping servicemen and servicewomen so as not to fall again.

At the entrance to the cave, Nicolas sat in the soft light of the half moon. Quietly, he honed and sharpened his sword blade on a dagger. He did not even look up as I passed him.

The night sky was cloudless and starry. I stood at the edge of the cliff and looked down over the seemingly endless rolling landscape. Slowly, I filled my lungs with the cold but fresh oxygen and let it out even more slowly.

"You know it," I then said softly after a while of silence and turned to the king. He knew we were already very close to our goal.

Nicolas interrupted the grinding for only a few seconds and then continued with his work. "Yes, I know it," he confirmed tersely.

I could feel it. By his energy of the last day and his tirelessness. By how awake he sat here preparing his blade. By the blazing rage he radiated continuously.

With my body trembling with cold, I turned my back on him again. "What did the scroll say, King Nicolas?" It didn't feel like a put-down to ask him that. I just wanted to know how my brother was doing. And Spero. My home.

In fact, Nicolas stopped altogether, as I heard him gingerly set aside his weapons. Then he stood up and stood three feet away from me, looking up at the dark sky. "I took it with me, if you want to read it," he then reported.

Surprised, I looked at him. All this long walk he had taken it with him? Why hadn't he burned it or thrown it away?

I directed my gaze forward again. Slowly, I breathed in and out. My breath left my mouth in the form of soft wisps of mist. "What did he write?", I asked. I guessed that reading the scroll myself now would only upset me more.

"He wrote how he feels about being the last member of his family to bury his parents alone," he said. I detected no gentleness in his voice, though he obviously left out painful parts. The grief and the pain and the accusations. "That they should organize a search party and you should come back."

Briefly, I let his words sink in. But they changed nothing. "I wouldn't have turned back then either," I voiced my thoughts.

"I know," he replied.

We were silent for the rest of our watch until we woke up the next two soldiers for the last watch session.

I watched as Nicolas settled back down to sleep before my body was once again enveloped by deep drowsiness.

And when I woke up again, Nicolas was gone.