The Shadow Dragons - James A. Owen [121]
Rose drew the blade across the palm of her hand, leaving Caliburn’s edge slick with her blood.
The winds of the Time Storm suddenly increased and began to howl around the island, as high above, the shadows of the Dragons circled, waiting.
“What are you doing?” the Shadow King whispered, his voice full of menace. “What do you think you are doing, girl?”
“I’m fulfilling my destiny,” she said. Her voice was barely audible over the howling winds. “I’m going to heal my family. I’m going to heal my father.”
“I am your father!” the Shadow King spat. “Give me the sword! Give me Caliburn! It is mine! It always was!”
“You are not my father,” Rose said calmly.” You are the darkness in his soul, which he chose to set aside. You are the strength, which takes no responsibility, and the will, which has no desire but to consume. You are his spirit, and when you have joined with him once more, it will be his choice what kind of man he is. Now, and forever.”
She leaped forward and pressed the tip of the sword against the Shadow King’s armor—right at the point where it curved into shadow.
The Shadow King froze in place. Caliburn had trapped him in the shell of the Red King.
“What are you doing, girl?” he screamed. “Stop! Stop this! Release me! I command you!”
“That’s exactly what I intend to do,” said Rose. “I’m going to release you, from everything.” With both hands, she drew the sword across his chest, making a lopsided figure eight. The point of the sword never left his armor, and where it passed, it left a mark of blood.
“I Bind you, Shadow,” she said softly, not caring if he or anyone else could hear. “With the mark I have chosen for myself, I Bind you.”
Then, as the Shadow King continued to scream, she spoke the words:
Shadow of my father
By right and rule
For need of might
I thus bind thee
I thus bind thee
By blood bound
By honor given
I thus bind thee
I thus bind thee
For strength and speed and heaven’s power
By ancient claim in this dark hour
I thus bind thee
I thus bind thee
Rose stepped back and lowered the black sword to her side. On the Shadow King’s armor, the infinity symbol she had drawn glowed briefly with a blue fire, then faded.
“Let me see who’s really in charge,” said Rose. “Show yourself, King of the Shadows.”
A tearing sound ripped across the hilltop as a thick, dark form pushed its way out of the Red King’s body. It had no face, only roiling hatred that crackled in the air.
“That’s good enough,” she said, gripping the sword with both hands. “I just wanted you to see my face.”
Rose swung the sword through the middle of the dark form, and it shattered apart, screaming, at the touch of Caliburn.
“Now,” she said to Stephen, “avenge your father, as I’ve avenged mine.”
“Gladly,” Stephen said. He stepped forward as the Shadow King’s body howled in dismay.
“I’m sorry!” the frozen king cried. “I—I didn’t mean for all of this to happen!”
“Good or evil,” Stephen said, clenching his jaw, “that’s the first thing you’ve said that I really believe.”
He swung the ax and cleanly lopped off the Shadow King’s head.
A burst of sparks and flame shot out of the neck as the body dropped to its knees, then fell over onto its right side, unmoving. The head went spinning down the hill and bounced several times, before at last coming to rest against a petrified log.
The body had only its own shadow. The second shadow had been destroyed by the touch of Caliburn.
Charys approached the spot where the head had fallen and looked down. Nothing remained of the countenance of the Shadow King—all that was left was the original clockwork once called the Red King.
“This is all very unorthodox,” the head of the Red King said. “Is the Parliament out of session?”
“It is now,” said Charys. He reared up with his forelegs and brought them smashing down onto the head, which exploded into gears and wheels and wires.
At that moment, all the Timelost Dragonships and the thousands of spellbound children crusaders, including young Stephen, vanished.
A cheer