“And that suits me just fine. I don’t want that power. I’d rather it be in the hands of a democratic government. I will fight for you, with you, beside you. I will work to free you all, but once this war is finished, I will not seek to rule you. My goal is to have you rule yourselves.”
A wave of applause, starting with a scattered few, then growing, washed over the crowd. As I waited for it to die down, a glint of light from deep in the audience caught my attention. Maybe someone was taking a picture?
I dismissed it.
“Let me be clear,” I continued. “Everyone. Will. Be. Free.” I punctuated those words with a soft pound of my fist on the lectern. “Dragons will no longer be protectors of the realm. They can choose to be whatever they wish. We already have an envoy speaking with the titans to stop the generations of bloodshed between us, and with peace in this realm, there will be no need for such protectors.”
A bit of movement down one of the aisles caught my attention, someone getting up and moving forward slowly. I ignored them and kept going.
“Those who fight in Elysial and Urval will be given sanctuary here, and we shall endeavor to make peace with the ages-old enemies in those realms as well. No one will have to fight and die, no one will have to serve. Everyone shall be judged on their own merit and?—”
I caught sight of the projectile, but too late. The crossbow bolt, fired by someone below, hit the lectern and deflected to one side, just missing me.
Men rushed the stage.
What the…!
Koar roared, racing to my side. Vyns blasted light. Rook threw fire. Even those in the seats below us fought, but the attackers seemed to be everywhere. Three men, clad in black, leaped — clearly enhanced in some way — hundreds of feet over the audience to land on the stage, engaging with Koar. They had weapons, but he didn’t, using his own toughness to take their attacks, and his hands and feet to beat them back.
Other attackers soared down from above, wings on their backs. They’d go right over Koar and Vyns and Rook, who were engaged with those on the ground.
I summoned water from the air and slashed a thin waveat them, cutting several of them down, but a handful still landed nearby.
The stage was made of wood, not stone, but I could still summon earth from farther below me. A wall shot up between me and the attackers, shattering the wooden stage. But I should have realized how silly that was… since they had wings.
Three quickly reached the top of the wall, clambering over, weapons ready.
A tiger-man-thing roared from nearby and leaped up to meet them… Safir in hybrid form. Wow, he was scary.
The fight closed in on me, my defenders blocking my view of the audience and everything else as more and more men rushed the stage, there had to be hundreds of them!
How naïve I’d been to assume this wouldn’t happen, that Valnea wouldn’t send assassins to take me out. Of course she would.
Safir leaped back off the wall, having dealt with the flyers, and landed beside me, bloody and wounded, but still going strong.
Another attacker pushed past Koar, who was taking on five others. I slashed water at the assassin and took him down.
But then two more rushed me from the other side.
I took one down with water while Safir engaged with the other, using tooth and claw.
Then… as suddenly as it had begun… it was over.
Koar spun to check on me.
“You okay?”
I nodded. “Yeah, you?” The big man didn’t look okay, covered in wounds, some deep and bleeding. I went to heal him, but he stopped me.
“I’ll be fine, dragons are immune to Kanali poison.”
Poison?
“Help him.” Koar pointed behind me and I turned to see Safir stagger and fall. He’d killed that last attacker but was clutching a dagger in his stomach.
I rushed to the shifter as his hybrid form faded and he returned to human, but that only exacerbated the wound, since this form was smaller, the knife cut him deeper when he shrank.
I laid my hands on his exposed chest, the suit he’d been wearing torn to ribbons. He pulled out the knife and tossed it far from me, smiling through his pain as I tried to heal him.
