When they told her her story was written in the stars, she went to the heavens and crushed each one with her bare hands.
Stars have no power over her,
the night sky is hers now, and she will carve it with constellations of her own.
-k.s.

-----❅-----

- Victorine -

-----❅-----

For a few seconds, there was complete silence in the corridors. Nicolas stared at me for a few seconds.

"Excuse me?" he then asked.

"I said that I would not tell you."

Suddenly, he took a step forward, while his hand also shot out and forcefully clasped my throat. Anger spurted from his eyes. I could still breathe, his hand did not completely squeeze. Not yet.

"You first think carefully about who you are standing in front of and then you will have the chance to answer my question again," he hissed, squeezing a little harder.

I could feel my oxygen slowly being cut off, but I wasn't afraid. There was no question of me telling him what Cephas wanted. Because then he wouldn't need me anymore, would get rid of me and look for it on his own.

But I had to come along. I had to invade Cephas' kingdom while Sanguis was attacking it. And then I had to, no, I would, free my sister.

"So?" asked Nicolas. He pressed harder and I slowly gasped. Continuing, I looked steadfastly into his green, seemingly poisonous eyes. After a few seconds, black dots danced in front of my vision.

Stay strong. For Crescentia. For my little sister.

Nicolas was about to kill me.

That would be anything but tactically wise, but I felt his anger more than overpowering as I looked into his eyes.

I saw darkness, a storm. I saw Cephas in Nicola's eyes. He rode from kingdom to kingdom to subjugate them. A blurry image of a throne room flitted through my vision.

"Don't you dare read my mind!" roared Nicolas. In the next moment, I felt his hand detach from my neck, rest against my forehead, then the back of my head slammed hard against the stone wall behind me.

Pain shot through the affected area and though I regained my breath, gasping greedily for it, I blacked out again.

"Get her out of my sight," the king demanded as I held my hands to the aching back of my head and slid down the cold wall.

My entire head hurt. Incredibly sharp, stabbing pain shot through the back of my head and I wondered if I had suffered a concussion. For far too short a time I sat there holding my head, and then I was pulled up roughly. "Come with me," I heard Orestes' voice faintly among the loud sounds of throbbing and blood rushing.

I slapped his hands away and continued on my way under my own power. My stomach felt unsteady, cramped. But not because of the pain, but my insecurity.

Nicolas had to take me with him, unless he tortured me to get the information. But we were running out of time, we both knew that. The faster we left, the better our chances were of reaching our destination before Cephas.

Carefully, I struggled to get to my room, which I had moved into after arriving. I entered, leaving Orestes standing wordlessly outside, and immediately locked the door behind me. After a brief look around, I carefully lay down in bed and stared at the ceiling while the pain slowly subsided over time.

I thought of my weapons under the bed, which I immediately took out of the throne room at the next opportunity. I would love to ram a dagger into Nicolas' cursed torso, but I would much rather kill Cephas.

I could only think of my goal. I didn't even want to imagine what my sister must be going through right now. How she had to suffer.

My thoughts drifted to Crescentia and our childhood. Various images and moments played in my head. I smiled gently.

Actually, we had almost nothing in common. She was rather quiet and calm, read novels from morning till night, was smart and polite and beautiful. While I could hardly sit still at the dinner table and looked for my adventures in the real world instead of in books.

Although we had been opposites like the sun and the moon, we had needed each other just as much.

I missed her incredibly, as well as I missed my brother, and even more my parents. With one blow, one night, my whole family had been torn apart.

My throat became raw and dry, I felt the tears fighting their way into my eyes. I let them roll and stared motionless, numb and thoughtless at the ceiling.

At one point, I felt my fingernails digging into my palms. Frustrated and angry, but also thoughtful and careful, I got up from the bed, wiping the tears from my face.

My gnawing hunger tormented me. I hadn't eaten since this morning, and I didn't need to hope to the invitation to roast venison, since I had most likely been disinvited again.

At the same time, I absolutely had to talk to Nicolas. We had to leave urgently, as soon as possible. I shuddered and pushed away the thought of Cepha's destination. Besides, with this hunger, I was hardly able to think rationally.

For a moment I considered running into the forest where I had left Deidamia to help myself to my supplies. My pride was clearly too great to ask anyone here for a meal.

But something in me resisted leaving this room. I was not a prisoner, but I felt like kingdom enemy number two. I wanted to avoid running into anyone, especially Nicolas. But I would definitely have to see him soon.

But the longer I waited, the more painful the hunger became. Then I would probably have to sneak out. I pulled my black hood over my head, put two daggers in my buckles attached to my leg and swung my sword around. After a moment's thought, I also took my crossbow. I didn't know the woods here and had no idea what creatures I might encounter here in the dark.

I was damn lucky that Orestes was not at my door. With ease, I found my way to the laundry room where I was discovered this morning. Always, always know the way out of the house of your supposed ally.

Again, it amazed me how few people lived in this huge castle. The older women who had worked here this morning were probably long gone. It was pitch dark and I felt my way to the door.

Suddenly, the light was switched on. I turned around and although it was logical that someone must be standing there, I flinched noticeably.

An unfamiliar man in a clerk's uniform stood in the doorway.

"Royal Highness Victorine?" he asked.

"Yes?", I replied, still not completely turning away from the outer door.

"The king is expecting you for dinner."

My jaw almost dropped, but then I assumed a proud posture. Of course I was expected for dinner, of course I wasn't going to sneak off into the forest to my meager supplies due to gnawing hunger.

"Of course," I then commented. "I am not familiar with the way to the dining hall," I explained.

"I'll lead you there," the man replied as a matter of course, taking no notice despite my obvious attempt to escape.

Silently we walked along the countless corridors and again I memorized the way very carefully.

It could be either a very good or very bad sign if Nicolas wanted to see me again. I could not let him know what Cephas wanted. Even if I almost broke under the weight that was on me. If Cephas really succeeded in making this find, then we were all in terrible danger. Just the thought of it sent sheer fear and cold through me, under my skin, to my bones.

I had thought that what he was looking for was a legend. But the possibility of the nonexistence for Cephas' target was not allowed to reassure me. I had to make sure it was either nonexistent or never, ever, fell into his hands.

The clerk opened the heavy door to the dining room for me. I entered and was first amazed at the bright light of the candles and chandeliers and the warm, light wood of the long table. Through the huge window front one could faintly see the tree tops of the surrounding woods lying in the dark.

At the end of the table sat Nicolas. He propped his chin in one palm and looked at me blankly as I entered the room.

I almost wanted to run back out when I realized we were completely alone. But the clerk was right behind me and one way or another I would have to face Nicolas if I wanted to save my sister.

There was no way I was going to lay down my weapons this time. I strode forward and sat down on the chair next to him, making sure he was able to see the weapons I was armed with. The cutlery for the upcoming meal lay neatly polished in front of me.

I thought of the prisoner's burned arms in the cellar and of Nicolas' delicate, easily irritated thread of patience. Of the back of my head and how that damned man had just smashed it against a wall of stone.

I took the cloth napkin on the table and wiped the emerging sweat from my forehead.

How he sat there and analyzed me expressionless from top to bottom. This person was creepy to me through and through.

"A dragon rider arrived here earlier. He had a scroll for you with him," Nicolas remarked quietly, sipping on a glass of blood-red wine.

"And where is this scroll?"

"You know, Highness Victorine, either you are stupid or you are hiding something from me," the king ignored my question with twinkling eyes. "You are sure that you can kill Cephas. But isn't the higher goal to stop him from causing more death and suffering? If for some inexplicable reason you perish on our journey, then no one will know how to stop him. How his plans can be thwarted."

"I'm not concerned with the future. I care about my desire for revenge," I countered dryly. That was at least a small part of the truth.

He looked right through me. "You're hiding something from me." Nicolas turned away and snapped his fingers loudly once. Employees scurried over and spread steaming food on the table in front of us.

Suspiciously, I watched what was happening. Perhaps I preferred my supplies from the forest after all. Even if Nicolas needed me, I worried about a poison attack. Besides, I wondered where the heck my scroll was.

While Nicolas began to eat, I straightened my back and squared my shoulders.

"We should not waste time, King Nicolas," I then pronounced.

His bright green eyes looked over at me. Slowly he chewed, I could see his jaw bones grinding hard. Then he took another sip of wine.

Slight anger welled up inside me. "I mean it. If Cephas gets what he wants, it will be the downfall of us all. And you, you sit here comfortably drinking wine," it escaped me in a quivering voice.

"Our departure is already planned, Highness Victorine. At the very dawn we will set out. Unfortunately," he said sharply, in an icy voice, "we have no destination. And no idea of what we will need on our journey. How long it will be. Over what territory it will lead. How many men we will need. You are only here at this table to tell me. I don't care if you go hungry."

I swallowed hard at his words. That was going to be a problem. I knew the way to get there. But it was a... Legend.

Confidently, I stood up. "Sorry," I said and grabbed Nicola's glass of wine, downing the contents in one. I really needed alcohol now. Then I strode toward the wall and pulled down one of the giant maps. I took the huge thing and spread it out on the wooden table.

After a few seconds, I had an overview. I would divide the way into several stages. At each point reached, I would reveal the next. This way I made sure that Nicolas would be depending on me the whole way.

I set the first point by ramming my dagger into it.

❅

"Deidamia?" I called into the forest. For a few seconds I looked around, then dug my supplies out of the ground. I took out an apple and bit into it, continuing to look around eating, well aware that my companions were watching me.

After about half a minute, the dragon slowly approached. Her eyes were on the people and other dragons behind me, waiting about ten wide steps away from me. However, who I let that close could also let get that close to her.

Still continuing to be suspicious, she looked behind me, landed, and strode heavily toward me. She lowered her head and I rested my cheek against her warm nostrils.

"How are you?", I asked softly, to which she snorted softly. "Our journey continues. I hope you're full and rested." I gave her my half-eaten apple, which she instantly gulped down.

I had calculated that our journey would take about eight or nine days, if nothing interfered with us. Of course, the others only knew that it took about a day to reach the first point and leave the dense forests behind.

I was aware that Tenebris' walk would probably only take three days longer. Moreover, he had also been searching for some time and had certainly already covered part of it. But I tried to remain confident. I had no other choice anyway.

I turned around and looked at the others. Altogether we were a troop of eight fully armed people and ten dragons. Nicolas had chosen the six strongest soldiers. The head soldier, four soldiers, and to my chagrin, Orestes.

Nicolas stood by his poison green giant dragon, which matched his eyes almost ridiculously well, and looked at me thoughtfully.

"Honored King Nicolas, why didn't you just torture the information out of her?", head soldier Tryphosa asked with a cautious tone and not looking away from me.

"There was no time to lose," the man replied curtly, swinging himself onto his dragon. Mightily they towered above us.

Suddenly, he scowled at me. "If you die, it is not Cephas who has caused the downfall of us all, but you. I hope you realize that."

"I guess you just can't let me die then," I replied, almost snarling.

Judging by his look, he didn't seem to like this idea at all. But he said nothing more and the conversation seemed to end.

We followed his example and climbed onto our dragons, one of the soldiers checked the supplies and weapons on the two baggage dragons, then we flew off.

Our troop spread out a bit, but everyone stayed in eye contact with at least one of us. We flew along between the tree trunks for our protection, just below the treetops. This technique was a bit less fast, but this way we were protected from attacks that could cause a crucial loss of time.

I noticed how the others had spread out around me. Deidamia and I formed the protected center of the formation that the others took. Nicolas was immediately to my right.

As time passed, I relaxed on Deidamia. I spread out a small map and went over the other points again in my mind. When I knew them by heart, I put everything back in my pocket and continued eating my supplies.

After about two hours, the head soldier and Nicolas began to confer. Shortly after, we flew through the treetops and found ourselves in open sky. Finally.

The wind whipped through my hair and face and I sucked in the fresh, cool air. A beautiful picture of sky, clouds and forest landscapes opened up before me.

Then I passed the time by scanning the sky for enemies. And not to think for hours about how my sister was doing. How my parents had been murdered. How I had left my brother alone. What the scroll meant that Nicolas had kept from me. And how Cephas could usurp the entire worlds power once he had achieved his goal.