And that was the thing about her,
she kept on surviving with bullet holes in her lungs, and knife marks etched in her back
she never let anything in her way, resilient, a fighter, not by choice, but a warrior at heart. -k.azizian

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- Nicolas -

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It took what felt like eternities to defeat the remaining soldiers. Eternities in which Victorine could already have been dragged through the entire castle. Or could already be dead.

More and more enemy reinforcements had arrived. Until the door behind us had suddenly opened. I looked over my shoulder to the rear. The dragon was still defending the entrance relentlessly. Vindicta had been replaced by another handful of witches.

The witch leader had stepped in with us, closed the door behind her, and helped us destroy the soldiers in the entrance hall. When only the last enemy stood before us, I raised my hand. "Stop, Vindicta!", I shouted before she could rip him apart in mid-air. "We still need that one."

"Fine by me," the witch shrugged. "My sisters have spread out around the castle and are working their magic. As of now, no one can get in. And no one is getting out either."

"Perfect," I said, pulling a long, sharp dagger from my leg holster. "Take your time with Xerxa. I have a little stop to make before I chop Cephas into a thousand pieces."

The witch's black eyes stared at me before she nodded slowly. "I will speak to you when I am ready." With a flourish, she turned and walked away with clacking steps.

Then silence fell in the hall as I looked down at the last soldier. "Take off his gloves," I ordered Orestes and Tryphosa, who had wiped blood and sweat from their faces.

The terrified soldier tried to fight back, but was clearly outnumbered. While more men held him down, Orestes and Tryphosa pulled off his helmet and hand guard.

"Help! Help!" the soldier now began to shout.

"There is no one here to help you," I replied in a calm voice.

"I don't know where Cephas is," the soldier groaned, breathing heavily. His brown eyes were wide as he looked around frantically.

I nodded to Tryphosa, who was now pressing his hands on the marble floor.

"I'm not looking for Cephas. I'm looking for the woman they dragged away." Slowly, I crouched down and looked at his face, which was collecting even more sweat than before.

"I don't know where she is," the soldier brought out, looking at the dagger in my hands.

I put the sharp blade to his little finger, whereupon the whole hand tightened. "Not even a guess?"

"Listen. If I reveal anything, I am doomed to die."

"Poor man," I made in a pitiful tone. "Unfortunately, that was the wrong answer."

With strength, I pressed down on the sharp blade. I felt the dagger cut through the skin and split the thin finger bone. The body part was severed even before the soldier started screaming.

Half crying, half screaming, he squirmed in front of me and stared at his finger lying on the ground.

Impatiently, I increased the pressure of my fingers around the handle of the dagger. I didn't have time for this. I didn't have time to sever each of his fingers. I needed answers, now.

"Orestes, Tryphosa, now it's the hand," I pronounced loudly, whereupon they pressed his wrist and forearm to the ground.

"No, no, no, please don't," the soldier pleaded between several sobs.

Orestes now cleared his throat. "If you talk to us, we'll just knock you unconscious and let you live," he tried to reassure the soldier.

"However, if you lie we'll come back and this whole thing will start all over again," I added calmly.

It was probably more effective to respond more emphatically than aggressively. The soldier's sobs became less panicked. He breathed in and out more calmly a few times. Then he described in detail the way to the dungeon of the castle.

I picked up Victorine's bloodied sword with the metal dragon hilt from the marble floor. With my heart racing, I ran forward without paying attention to the man behind me being knocked unconscious. Every single second counted. Victorine had been gone far too long.

I sprinted down the hallways and stopped at the last turn the man had described. Blinking around the corner, I spotted the stairs leading down and the two soldiers guarding the dungeon entrance.

Quickly I turned, making sure my squad was behind me, and ran ahead. When my blade hit the guards' swords, my goal was still to kill them. But that took too long. I could leave that to the others.

I charged down the steps and tore open the door, where three more guards, who had probably been alerted by the sounds of battle, ran toward me.

My heart raced as I fought the three men with Tryphosa in the narrow hallway. Please. Please don't let it be too late. Please don't let her be dead yet.

The enemy soldiers had raised their shields. The walls were so close together that it was hard to get around their protection.

My chest felt like it was going to rip apart at any moment. "Victorine, are you here?", I called out loudly over the sounds of our battle.

The silence behind the soldiers was stifling. So stifling that all at once my body felt heavy as lead.

"Victorine!", I shouted louder. "Are you all right?"

Tryphosa finally landed a hit. The soldier in front of her let out a cry of pain and staggered back, causing the other guards to lose their firm stance for a moment.

My heartbeat accelerated steadily as we took out the soldiers. Tryphosa pushed in front of me and ran in case there was an ambush on me. But that thought was only incidental.

"Search the guards. Find me the dungeon keys, now!", I barked at the troops and started running after Tryphosa.

I stumbled over the bodies of the guards and ran down the dark hallway. Prison cells now appeared to the left and right. Fastly, I took quick glances inside, in case Tryphosa had overlooked Victorine. Almost at the end of the corridor, I noticed the head soldier stop at one of the last cells.

My breath got caught in my throat as I took the last few steps and looked into the cell. Leaning against the wall of the dimly lit room, she hung her head.

"The key," I groaned, turning around and grabbing the rattling bunch of keys Orestes handed me.

With trembling fingers, I tried one key after another until finally one could be inserted into the keyhole.

I wrenched open the barred door and ran forward. First I grabbed her face with both hands and listened. When I heard her breathing, I had to restrain myself from immediately pulling her into my arms. I was overcome with a mountain of emotions. Relief, first of all. But also anger, especially when I took a closer look at the king's daughter.

There was a long cut on her forehead that reached to her eyebrow. The blood had already dried. There were red and blue marks on her face. Looking down at her, I discovered a dagger in her thigh, as well as a lot of blood and a sour-smelling brownish-yellow liquid on the floor.

"Victorine?", I asked, gently placing my hand on her shoulder.

After some gentle shaking, the king's daughter finally opened her dark brown, red-swollen eyes. She had been crying.

My breath became shaky while my hands clenched into fists. I would cut Cephas alive into several pieces. I wanted to see him scream and to cause him the worst pain of his life.

"Nicolas?" whispered the king's daughter, fixing me with an exhausted look.

I tried to remain calm, although my body shook with anger. "Where does it hurt the most?", I asked softly.

"In the belly," she moaned and began to breathe short through her clenched teeth.

While Tryphosa unlocked Victorine's bonds, I examined the red and blue skin on her belly, slowly pulled the dagger from her thigh, and pressed a piece of cloth that Tryphosa handed me onto the bleeding wound.

"We have to get to Cephas," Victorine brought out, trying to pull herself together.

"Easy," I reassured her, securing the blood stopper with another piece of cloth that I wrapped around her thigh like a bandage.

"He went to check on Xerxa a little while ago. Apparently there was a problem," the king's daughter informed me, although she was visibly having difficulty speaking.

Carefully, I took her hands in mine and examined the wrists roughened by the shackles. Then I took my right hand and carefully placed it against her somewhat red and bluish cheek, but took it down again when Victorine winced slightly.

The young woman now tried to sit up. As she stretched her thigh she groaned in pain.

"I can't take you with me. We will take you somewhere safe," I said, but then faltered. Vindicta had said that no one would get in or out now. We were stuck here until either we or Cephas were dead.

"I know you mean well, Nicolas," Victorine whispered. "But if you do, it won't save me. Then I will throw myself from a tower window at the first opportunity. Stopping Cephas is the only thing I have left in my life."

Although I didn't want to, I could understand her. Very well, in fact. For a long time, that had been the only goal and purpose in my life as well.

"Can you stand?"

Victorine nodded, gritted her teeth, and took a cautious step forward. Limping slightly, she walked toward her armor pieces. I helped her put on the metal protective armor and harnessed her crossbow.

Finally, under the protection of my remaining soldiers, we left the prison cell. I strode after Victorine, but before we were even on the dungeon corridor, there was a tremendous crash above us that made us stop. Dust and a little dirt fell from the ceiling. It had sounded like an explosion.

Probably the witch leader Vindicta had reached the traitor witch Xerxa.