Raxx’s head snapped to the right as thundering hooves approached. The snow swirled, making it difficult to see and he raised a hand to shield his eyes and get a better look.
Without a doubt, the large dark stallion charging towards them, his neck white with foamy sweat and eyes wild with fear, was Endri; Zelrus’s horse. Atop the stallion, Raxx sighed with relief, was King Zelrus, his dark cloak whipping in the wind. A single guard, perhaps the only one that remained of the three that had accompanied the king, galloped alongside him.
Faye screamed as the horses crashed through their ghostly visage and Raxx instinctively flinched, crouching forward to protect Faye from the barrage of hooves. They sailed right through them, leaving both himself and the princess unharmed.
Raxx’s head jerked back up and his blood ran cold as he watched thirty or more King’s Guard knights on the king’s tail. Their horses snorted as they passed, breathless from the chase, and their swords glinted in the dim light, flashing menacingly through the snow storm.
“Hold on tight,” Raxx hissed to the princess in his arms as he leapt to his feet. With a speed he reserved purely for moments like these, he pumped his arms by his sides as majick fuelled his muscles. Within moments he had caught up and overtaken Zelrus’s horse with ease.
Just as they arrived at the gate to the compound, Raxx materialised and threw Faye to the ground with such force she skidded a few feet away through the snow.
The shadow demon turned, just as the king and his guard barely managed to swerve their horses to the side to avoid trampling him. They both skidded past him, the horses’ metal shoes sparking against the cobbles as they entered the compound.
The shadow demon ran forward a few steps and pulled his gloves from his hands as he did so.
“Raxx, no!” He heard Faye scream behind him.
Raxx took a deep breath and felt the ground rumbling beneath his feet as he released the majick from his body with a dizzying intensity.
As the King’s Guard approached, he threw his arms out, roaring with effort as he cast a dark wall of majick. By the time the King’s Guard and their horses had spotted the black nothingness that had opened up in front of them, they were swallowed by it. Raxx leapt aside, barely evading the horses as they careened into his trap. He heard the faerie’s yelling and their horses screaming in terror as they plummeted into darkness.
The first wave of soldiers skidded to a halt, causing the others behind to crash into them. Some horses reared, terrified and blinded, and faeries were catapulted from their steeds. Horses, now without the guidance of their rider, span and bolted away from the darkness, back into the streets of Banesteppe.
Raxx watched with a grimace as some poor, unsuspecting demons were trampled into the cobblestone street when they failed to out-run the loose horses.
Unfortunately, the demon’s majick only served to disorientate and slow down the first wave of soldiers who crashed into it. Some luckier souls managed to navigate around the spell, their horses jumping clear over their fallen comrades, and charged straight into the king’s compound. Other faeries had fallen from their horses and were now on foot. They freed their weapons and, with battle cries, sprinted to join the fight.
It was a start, at least. Raxx was relieved to have dismounted as many riders as he had. On the ground they would be much easier targets.
All around him, metal clashed with metal. Yelling and screaming drowned out even the large bell, still rocking back and forth in the tower. The shadow demon disembodied and darted through the fray, searching frantically for Faye.
As he passed, Raxx spotted a faerie knight lunge forwards with the intention of sinking his blade into the back of an unsuspecting demon guard. The shadow demon materialised between them, slashing out at the man’s throat with the sharp dagger made from majick. The faerie gaped at him, wide eyed with shock. He grasped at his neck, trying in vain to stop the blood as it pumped into the snow, before falling heavily to his knees.
Raxx could not afford to give it a second thought. He slipped back into the shadow plane, and continued to sprint ahead.
There were thirty, perhaps even forty, King’s Guard knights here, but why? It was too few a number for even a mad man like Lazuli to contemplate sending to overthrow Banesteppe, and yet far too many to send for an assassination. Was it by unhappy coincidence the King’s Guard had stumbled upon Zelrus? What did they want – the king... Or the princesses?
A bright flash caught Raxx’s attention and the ground shook beneath the force of a majick blast. He rushed to the source, surprised to see Tabitha fighting amongst the demon guards. Several of her witch cohorts surrounded her, each blasting back the King’s Guard knights.
Tabitha grinned as she caught sight of him, before turning to fire another blast of energy from her palms. A horse screamed and crashed to the ground, spraying snow and debris into the air, as its legs buckled. The faerie rider atop it slipped from the saddle, trapped beneath the weight of the large animal as it fell.
As the knight struggled to free himself, Tabitha unleashed another bolt, this time piercing the horse between the eyes to end its suffering. The witch’s wild, yellow eyes turned to the soldier and he stared back at her, horror stricken.
Raxx watched the trapped faerie’s thrashing become more and more frantic as Tabitha approached. Without a word, the witch knelt beside him and pressed her fingertips into his forehead.
The knight fell limp for a moment, before suddenly sitting up. When the man opened his eyes, his irises were bright yellow.
With an unbelievable strength that he had not possessed moments before, the guard pushed the horse’s body away and got to his feet. His leg was visibly broken, jutting off at an alarming angle, yet he stood. His face was blank and emotionless.
A knight flew at Tabitha. Before she had time to turn and defend herself, Raxx materialised, shooting a bolt of majick clean through the faerie’s chest, spraying blood all over the witch.
Tabitha grinned, daubing her tongue against the splashes of blood on her lower lip. “It’s about time you got here, I thought I told you to hurry?”
Raxx shot her a scathing look, turning to swipe out at another faerie as he attempted to ambush them. This time, the knight parried Raxx’s attack, his majick ricocheting off the shining surface of the faerie’s blade.
The shadow demon righted himself, but before he could land a second strike, Tabitha’s expressionless faerie darted forward and plunged his blade through his comrade’s throat.
The guard fell to his knees, blood spraying from his mouth as he stared up, bug-eyed, at the possessed faerie standing over him.
