Ablaze

Seldryn opened his eyes. Everything was quiet, the palace slept. Yet he had woken. Something was wrong. He slipped from his bed and padded to the open window. Peering into the balmy night, he could just make out the dark mass of the curtain wall. The battlements appeared deserted, the watch fires out. He could hear muffled footsteps in the corridor now. Seldryn pressed his ear to the heavy door. Someone was whispering urgently outside his chamber. He flattened himself against the wall just as a cloaked man swept inside bearing a torch. He cast it's light around the room and glanced back at the corridor. 'Not here' he told his companion. 'He mustn't reach the prince,' the other answered, 'hurry!'. The prince! Seldryn felt a brief wave of panic. He knew what he must do. The girl, of course, would need to come with them. She would be used against them if he left her there. He closed his eyes to summon the familiar. As ever, he felt vulnerable drifting away from his carefully crafted thoughts, reaching out to his bird. The animal answered to his master's call. Through a balcony elsewhere in the keep, Seldryn knew a large raven was entering the young lady's living quarters to rouse her from her troubled sleep. She would know where to meet them, it was the prince he needed to worry about now.

He poked his head into the corridor and looked both ways before sprinting after the intruders, who had already disappeared. He reached the spiral staircase to the north tower, but instead of climbing it, turned down the corridor to his left and knocked softly on the first door. A small woman in a nightdress opened almost instantly. 'Seldryn!' she panted. 'They're here. It's happening.' 'I know Marietta, I know,' he answered, stepping into the room. Marietta closed the door quietly and hurried to the end of her chamber. She dragged the bed aside to reveal a trapdoor. Seldryn opened it and stepped inside. 'Are you taking the girl aswell?' She asked before he could disappear. Seldryn looked up from the floor. 'Yes. You know it's necessary.' She nodded. There was nothing to add. 'Take care, will you?' Seldryn smiled at her and climbed down, closing the trapdoor behind him.

He crawled for a short while along a narrow tunnel until he reached a ladder hewn into the wall. It took  him up through the hollow interior of the north tower's spiral staircase, to the prince's chambers. Seldryn emerged from a cramped closet to find the thin, dark-haired boy sleeping in an equally dark room. He shook him lightly. 'Daevon, wake up. We're leaving.' The prince looked up at him blearily. 'Why?' 'The Usurper!' Seldryn hissed, 'quick, the keep has been taken.' At theese words, Daevon seemed to understand the urgency. He leapt out of bed and ran to fetch a travelling cloak. 'I'm ready,' he told Seldryn, slinging a leather bag round his shoulder. Seldryn eyed him up. 'Good. Open the window, your cousin should be here any minute.' If the child was surprised by this order or this information, it didn't show. He did as he was told. The door suddenly burst open as three armed guards barged into the room. Seldryn held up his arms; he had been expecting them. 'How much is he paying you?' he asked calmly. The men seemed taken aback. Clearly they had not expected verbal intercourse. They looked at each other for an instant with raised eyebrows. As one, they charged towards Daevon, who was waiting wide-eyed at the window. Seldryn stretched his arms wider, and the guards collided head-on with his invisible barrier. 'I cannot double his price,' he continued telling them, 'Why, I can't even match it!' He chuckled. 'But I can, however, offer you something he will not give you.' All three men were pointing spears at him, unable to advance. They did not reply. 'I can be merciful. I can kill you now.' At that moment a blade whizzed past Seldryn's left ear and sank into the largest man's neck. Seldryn spun round to find a teenage girl with flaming red hair sitting astride a colossal jet-black bird outside the window, a belt of throwing knives at her hip. 'Go!' he shouted. The boy climbed onto the window and looked back. His cousin was stretching a hand out for him to take. Seldryn dared not follow, lest he break the force-field before Daevon was safe. He could hear the boy pleading with him. 'Go!' he repeated, more loudly. Two more soldiers had appeared at the doorway, wearing chain-mail and crossbows. The girl at the window tugged the prince onto the raven. Seldryn closed his eyes and felt the barrier disappearing as he willed the bird to fly away. He was brought back to consciousness when something cold and hard struck his chest. He sank to his knees as the crossbowmen ran to the open window to take aim. The two remaining soldiers were guarding the staircase. Seldryn caught a glimpse of the quarrel stuck in his chest. There was only one thing he could do now. 'Forgive me, Marietta,' he thought.

The guard closest to the door saw him muttering to himself, as if in prayer. 'He's not dead you bungler!' he yelled at the one by the window. The rest turned to watch him drive his spear through Seldryn's heart. He immediately released it with a yelp as if it were white-hot. The sorcerer was already dead when burning claws started ripping him apart from the inside out to flood Daevon's chambers with blazing ethereal creatures. They tore at flesh, wood and stone, causing the stench of charred meat to permeate the room before ash and smoke took over. The Usurper's men barely had time to scream as the room was engulfed in wildfire.

Daevon the prince turned from his place at the raven's back. A silent tear streaked his face as he watched the proud seat of his ancestors flare up in a bright blue inferno.