Dead Rainbow

Rainbow

Redwing ignored the shadow in the corner and turned his attention to his mother. With a wave of his hand, the shackles came undone. Schön reached for her chest with both hands pressing down on the open wound. She struggled to breathe as her punctured lung filled with blood. 

"Redwing, darling, stay away from that devil," she coughed and spit up red. 

"Mother, I have new powers, I can bring you back if you die, mother, I can save you!" He threw himself into her lap. 

"Can you heal me?" she asked. 

"I know every spell in the sorcery book. The demon memorized them. But they are meant to harm, not heal," he cried. 

"I'll call your father. He taught me how. In case anything ever happened to me.  He might be surprised when he sees you, darling." She smiled at her son, though she was near her end. 

"My father? How?" 

"He will come. Trush him. He can save you." 

Schön began to glow. Through the tower window came the incredible light of a rainbow. It connected with her and leapt through the sky, sailing out across the kingdom. She leaned back in the chair and waited. 

The shadow flew out of the corner, knocked Redwing away from his mother, and attacked her. 

"No! Stop! Mazlovado, I command you! Stop!" Redwing tried to get to his feet as quickly as he could. 

The shadow tore and clawed his mother in wild thrashing movements, then entered her body through her wound. She sat up unnaturally erect, eyes glowing black, and a look of terror stretched across her face. Her expression settled into evil malice. 

The demon possessed her and spoke using her voice; a sound that would haunt Redwing the rest of his life. 

"You cannot command me, not when there's a soul to steal. She's my ticket out of here." 

Her rainbow lost its color and became a series of grayscale colors, black through white. Schön's body fell limp and Redwing sensed both she and the demon were gone. He fell at her feet crushed by loss. 

Above the fallen empire, arched a great black rainbow; the most terrifying of bad omens. The people of the vanquished city, as well as the conquering army, looked to the sky in horror. At the end of the nightmarish rainbow was the great tower of the palace. 

The guards below looked up stunned. 

"Get up there, you dogs, and kill that slimy sorcerer!" screamed their captain. 

Soldiers rushed up the stone stairwell of the tower. The sound of their stomping boots shocked Redwing back to reality. He stood up, ran across the chamber, and double bolted the door. 

"This could be the end," he said turning around to look at his mother. 

The bleak rainbow was gone and a strange man stood beside her body. He wore the simple robes of an aesthetic monk and no shoes on his bare feet. His long white hair was kept up in a top knot in the style of the invaders and a spindly Fu-Manchu beard hung nearly a foot down his chest. He was holding his mother's limp hand. 

"Get away from her!" yelled the boy. 

The old man looked at him and smiled. "You have your mother's eyes." 

Redwing froze, unable to process the situation. He was filled with rage, with loss, with regret, with fear. 

The guards pounded hard on the door causing the child to jump in startled panic, his nerves at their end. The old man walked past him toward the door. The guards outside pounded so hard it nearly came off its hinges. The man unlocked and opened it to two large men in battle armor with swords in hand. 

"Gentlemen, if you'd be so kind as to delay your friends and give us a moment. Just enough time to say goodbye. Thank you." 

The soldiers looked dumbfounded, then turned, and ran down the stairs. 

"What the hell are you idiots doing? I told you two... aahhhhh!" 

The scream of the captain below brought more soldiers to the tower and the sounds of an epic brawl were muffled when the old man closed and bolted the door once again. He walked back over to the chair. 

"Schön, I call back your spirit and send you to a better place." 

A golden aura pulsed from her body and for an unbelievable moment, a golden apparition of Schön in all her beauty stepped forth from her battered corpse. She smiled at the old man and leaned forward to kiss his cheek. She beamed unfiltered golden shimmering love at little scared and confused Redwing. 

"Go with your father, my darling, he will keep you safe," said his spectral mother. 

She pulsed in all the colors of the rainbow and slowly disappeared.