“What?” Ganora cried. She grabbed Fraleigh’s wrists. “They’ll kill you!”
Fraleigh’s face hardened. “No, they won’t. I cannot die.”
Ganora tightened her grip. “They can do worse. I won’t let you go.”
With a pained grunt, Fraleigh shoved her sister into the snow and raised her hands.
“Stay here,” she said, her voice heavy. “Stay here until it’s safe.”
The snow brightened and formed warm green and gold ribbons that wrapped around Ganora’s wrists.
The ribbons shortly disappeared, but Ganora grabbed her left wrist with wide eyes. “What did you do?”
Fraleigh’s lip trembled, but then she straightened her back. “I did this for you.”
Ganora opened her mouth to protest, but Fraleigh ran for the passage. My consciousness followed Fraleigh, but I caught a glimpse of Ganora desperately chasing her older sister through the passage.
But Fraleigh ran faster. Four seconds passed before Ganora’s scream shredded the frigid air.
The future Queen of the Giants had reached the end of her enchanted tether.
A flash of white engulfed my vision and then the memory warped.
Snow turned into flame.
Huts made from pinewood and animal hides were ablaze. Each snowflake fell to the earth bathed in golden fire. Children cried. Women screamed.
But Fraleigh stood in the snow, her eyes lit up with righteous fury as her magic wrapped around the neck of an invading soldier. Fraleigh closed her fist and the soldier fell in breathless death, his blue plumed helmet clattering against the ground..
Three more soldiers ran after her with their swords drawn, but with a wave of her arm, Fraleigh bathed them in a tower of flame. They died screaming as their steel chainmail cooked them.
A young but tall man barrelled through the lines of men in the village. His dark curls peeked out from beneath his helmet as his blazing blue eyes looked around.
I could not believe it, it was Alastar the Conqueror himself!
Fraleigh’s memory was his conquest of Nordingaard, his final battle before he claimed Lycaster as his. I had to memorize every recorded detail of the battle in school, but I was watching the real history play out.
Alastar raced forward and yanked his father’s shield off a nearby wall where it had been displayed as a trophy—the famous Taurus shield.
His father, Cassius, was a Latiman general who fell at the first siege of Nordingaard. His partner and fellow general, Marcus Janus, had sent Cassius on a doomed mission up the mountain so he could rule the soon-to-be conquered Lycaster by himself.
Alastar the Conqueror’s taking of the mountain was not just the final push to form the Dukedom, it was his vengeance for the betrayal of his father.
Alastar let out a scream of triumph as he fastened the shield bearing three rearing bulls to his arm and held his spear aloft.
The soldiers of Alastar’s army flooded into the village faster and fiercer.
Even though I knew they were going to win, I still choked on terror as I watched the snow turn scarlet.
Volleys of arrows soared through the air, piercing Fraleigh’s skin one by one. She yanked an arrow out of her chest, but there were too many for her magic to stop.
She tried to run, but an arrow pinned her to the wooden wall of a house behind her. Then another. Then another.
She was trapped—pinned to the wall like a butterfly. Sparkling blood poured out of each wound as Fraleigh panted with her eyes closed. Her wounds tried to heal themselves around the arrows, but she could not free herself.
My consciousness stayed beside Fraleigh as her head lolled down. She must have exhausted her power.
The victorious Latiman soldiers rounded up the village elders and threw them to their knees before Alastar the Conqueror. Some of them had missing eyes or their lips were stained red with blood.
