I feel like Odette might understand my jaded personality if I ever chose to let it show. It seems like she has similarly been put through ridiculoussituations.
Angelique grabbed a handful of grit and blasted it with alteration magic before flinging it at the fallen dark mage. As it hit him, the grit transformed into a bunch of angry,swarming, red ants that slipped under the mages’clothes.
“Princess,” Angelique—ever dutiful even in the middle of battle—began, “meet Nadia and Misha of the Black Swan Smugglers, and their leader, Odette, the Swan Queen.” Angelique crouched, missing another chain of blackmagic.
“Stop calling me that!” Odette caught the three daggers Misha tossed to her, then waded through the goblin pack—still barefoot—afterNadia.
Briar sprang on the legendary weapon and pulled it from the ground. “Isaia!”
Yep, just as Ithought.
Sir Isaia did not share her sentiments—or Rosalinda’s—for she heard him say, “No. Briar—Princess Rosalinda—youcan’t!”
Uninterested in a lovers’ argument, Angelique glanced at the Black Swan Smugglers. “Could one of you watch my back for a moment? I want to attack a chimera, but I need a moment to cast the rightspell.”
Odette was at her back in an instant, carving a trail through thegoblins.
Misha scooped up a goblin club from a fallen foe. “Whichchimera?”
Angelique nodded at the closest monster, which was tangling withFirra.
The fire mage managed to keep the beast back with white-hot fireballs, but she was stretched thin—she still stood guard over the unconscious Donaigh. The monster tested her reach, striking at her with its snake-headed tail and then batting at her with a clawedpaw.
“Right, then.” Misha flung the club, which cracked the chimera on its lion head, thenwhistled.
The chimera whirled around, locked eyes with Misha andsnarled.
“That wasn’t really necessary.” Angelique yanked on her powers—wincing as more magic slammed into her than she could safely use on this one spell. She hurriedly twisted it into the necessary structure and muttered in the language ofmagic.
The chimera stalked forward, closing in onthem.
Angelique threw her work at the creature, creating a massive chunk of ice that froze around the beast’s paws and torso, freezing it inplace.
Before she could do anything more, a magic knight charged up and slew themonster.
Firra waved her thanks and traced a circle of fire around herself andDonaigh.
Angelique relaxed marginally, then glanced back at Rosalinda and Sir Isaia, hoping they had made theexchange,
Theyhadn’t.
In fact, they were stillarguing.
“I’m not worthy—it won’t accept me,” Sir Isaiasaid.
Angelique allowed herself a rare treat and rolled her eyes. “You can tell this is Sole,” she announced, “because a knight is willing to argue about something like worthiness in the middle of a battle. This country could do with a good dose of commonsense.”
“Yeah,” Odette agreed. “They’ve got almosttoo muchhonor.”
“Could be worse.” Angelique gestured and stabbed a cluster of goblins with stakes of ice. “They could be arguing aboutlove.”
Odette blushed, and Misha snorted withlaughter.
“Oh dear, was love a frequent discussion during battle for the Black Swan Smugglers?” Angelique asked—notquitecaring that she was betraying herimage.
“It came up when we fought Rothbart,” Mishasaid.
Odette was a whirlwind, spinning with her daggers as she struck low and jumped high, untouchable as the goblins scrambled and failed to keep pace with her. “We discussed itafter.”
