Mirror

Chapter 10 - Tempest

 "Demons, step away from the door, and nobody will get hurt," the king said in a calm, measured voice. His death-sharp arrow was still pointed straight at her heart. He and Blood regarded each other for a long moment. Then, Blood threw back her head and laughed. Her laugh reverberated eerily through the hallway, and the Shatelite soldiers shifted uneasily.

"Demons, you call us. That's hilarious," Blood sneered, "when it is you who shove us into the margins, not giving a care for the world that you harm. You bee-brained fools, not seeing two steps in front of you. You're greed will be your demise." Cedar said nothing, his arrow still taut in its bow. It quivered slightly, waiting to be released.

If one had blinked in that exact second, they would have missed what had happened. But, Tempest was just so lucky to see the scene unfold like a moving picture before her.

On Blood's twitch of a muscle, Cedar released the arrow, and it shot forward with so much speed and power that, if Blood hadn't ducked in that split second, it would've ripped through her chest. Instead, it zipped right over her head and embedded itself into a fire Storm's knee cap. She howled in agony, collapsing, and thus letting loose a spurt of rage-empowered flames.

The battle began again, this time the focus directed toward the hordes of Shatelites who came storming up the stairs. Blood was furious. She didn't even seem to care that Avalanche was on the floor, dead. Tempest didn't have time to process what was happening, what had happened. She had to focus on the fight, focus on pushing back the ignorant mud-veins down the stairs. This was their moment to wrest away control over Tundira.

But Spark fell to her knees, cradling, Indigo's head in her arms. He must've been injured. This is no time to be weak!

She saw Avalanche lying on the floor, his eyes wide and mouth shaped like an 'o', the same it was when the arrow tore through him. He had been encased in ice and frost. Blood will replace him, hopefully.

"You stay away from my parents!" A voice was nearly drowned out by the din of the fight. A boy who looked close to Tempest's age emerged from the stairway, holding a sickly sharpened sword in his hand, long and sharp.

"For the King!" He shouted.

"For the King!" The Shatelites answered. The black-haired boy charged forward, skewering Storms before they could react.

"Push back! Don't let them get through!" Inferno hissed. It was a massacre of bodies and metal and fire and ice. Tempest felt herself drown in the confusion, trying not to get trampled in the crowded hallway. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Borealis, Taiga, and Polaris sneaking out of the window. Tempest hesitated. Someone else would surely have noticed. But no, they had slipped out of sight, and not a single person had done anything to stop them.

Before she could stop herself, she bolted after them, leaping out the window and pillowing her fall with a rush of warm wind from inside. Taiga's eyes widened, then hardened into cold, blue slits. She reached for Tempest's hair, then yanked- hard. Tempest's eyes watered, and she tore away, leaving a curl of blue behind as she fell to the icy ground.

"They're getting away!" She yelled, hoping Blood or someone else would hear. Storms leapt from the window, tackling the royals to the ground. Blood knocked Borealis out with a deft punch to the head. Polaris was slammed to the wall by Cyclone and a few water-veins. Taiga was held firmly to the ground by Tempest, with the help of Spark and another earth-vein who she didn't know.

Cedar shot arrows from the window, dispatching several Storms. But, Inferno shot a blast of fire at him, and, even as North made a grab to save him, he fell from the window, crumpling over Tempest. Tempest collapsed under him, trying to get out.