Deliverance (40 page)

Just as Bogdan lay completely motionless on
his back and reverted back to his human form, a large, black shadow
seeped from his skin. It floated like a cloud of smoke and then
took the form of a distorted face. The shadowy face let out a
shrill, inhuman scream before fading away in the air and
disappearing forever.

“It’s . . . over,” Crystal panted.

“Just relax; you used a lot of energy with
that spell,” Gavril said softly as he approached her.

Crystal then tried to stand, but Blaze stood
as well and held her arm.

“Hang on, you need to rest,” Blaze scolded
her.

“Just a minute, please. I have to make sure
he’s dead,” Crystal pleaded. Blaze nodded and released his
grip.

The monsters in town had disappeared and the
villagers, rebels, mages, and elders had crowded around the sides
of the square. The watched as Crystal slowly made her way to
Bogdan’s still body and knelt beside him. Even with his eyes closed
and his body still, Bogdan’s face was still fierce and sharp. His
chest was covered cuts and stab wounds that were still slowly
bleeding. Crystal leaned over him and reached her hand to his neck
to feel his pulse.

However, before her fingers even touched his
skin, she screamed as Bogdan’s hand flew up and snatched her arm.
At that same moment, his eyes flew open and he lunged towards her.
Bogdan landed on top of her and wrapped both of his hands around
her neck and once again, Crystal desperately tried to release his
grip.

“You’ve ruined everything I have fought for
you parasitic bitch! Why won’t you die?” Bogdan screamed.

Crystal then felt him lift off of her and
felt a pair of arms pick her up. She realized it was Gavril who
held her in his arms when he rushed off to the side and placed her
on the ground. Several other rebels knelt beside her to make sure
she was all right. After he was sure she was fine, Gavril then ran
to Bogdan’s direction where Blaze was now kneeling on top of him
and savagely punching him in the face.

“Blaze!” Gavril shouted. He stopped a few
feet away from the quarrel when he saw Blaze stand up and unsheathe
his sword.

Bogdan lay on his back again and Blaze stood
towering over him with his sword. He held it in both his hands with
the blade pointed downward straight at Bogdan’s chest. Blaze looked
down upon the man who he once called his father with nothing but
disgust and hatred. There was no fear or dread in the king’s eyes;
all Blaze could see was what seemed to be anticipation. Blaze’s
sword hovered over Bogdan’s body for some time. His body tensed up
and the hilt trembled in his hand as he finally had the chance for
his revenge.

However, Blaze’s body suddenly became
relaxed and, with his hand still holding the hilt, he let the tip
of his blade hit the ground beside Bogdan. Blaze closed his eyes
and took several deep breaths as he backed away. Crystal stood and
started walking towards him while Gavril stood off aside and waited
for what Blaze would do next.

To everyone’s surprise, Bogdan burst into
laughter. He rolled onto his side, lifted himself slightly with his
arms, and he looked up at Blaze and taunted him.

“I knew you had gone soft. You can’t even
kill me!” he boasted. Bogdan then continued to laugh until Blaze
replaced his sword into its sheath.

“Actually, Bogdan, I was trying not to kill
you,” Blaze retorted.

“What the hell are you talking about?”
Bogdan countered.

“Don’t you get it? I was fighting the urge
to kill you because I refuse to follow in your footsteps any
longer. There was a time when I would have killed you without a
second thought. I used to want you to die for stealing my life from
me, but the truth is . . .” Blaze stared him down again, and this
time, he stared back with a hateful and shocked expression. Blaze
finally muttered, “. . . You don’t deserve death.”

The crowd of people inched closer and
Crystal watched Blaze with a smile, proud of his courage.

“What is that supposed to mean?” Bogdan
growled.

“Look around, Bogdan.” Blaze told him,
“Everyone here is someone affected by your cruelty. They are all
watching you as you lay humiliated and alone on the ground, and in
your already weak and wounded condition, you won’t be alive much
longer anyway. I can’t think of a better way for your life to end
than for all these people to watch you squirm alone in the
dirt.”

Blaze then turned and walked off towards
Crystal. She smiled at him again and he smiled back. Crystal
approached Blaze to embrace him, but stopped in her tracks when she
saw Bogdan rise to his feet behind him with one of the halflings’
throwing knives braced in his hand and charged towards Blaze while
he still had his back turned.

“Look out!” Crystal shouted to Blaze.

“If I die, I’m taking you with me!” Bogdan
screamed just as Blaze turned around. He was about to grab his
sword to defend himself when Gavril stepped in front of him and
drove his sword straight through Bogdan’s heart. The knife slipped
out of Bogdan’s hand and tumbled loudly onto the ground.

With a fierce glare, Gavril looked Bogdan
straight in the eyes only inches from his face and whispered, “You
took Althea from me, but I will never let you take our son.”

In his dying moments, Bogdan felt a sense of
defeat for the first time in his life. His skin grew pale as the
blood pumping from his heart poured down his body. His bloodshot
eyes closed slowly and Gavril removed his sword and let his mortal
enemy collapse lifelessly to the ground.

Bogdan’s body grew still and his blood
spread into a large puddle at Gavril’s feet. He backed away in time
to avoid the blood staining his boots and his body began to wobble
faintly back and forth. Crystal and Blaze both walked up behind him
in time to catch him before he collapsed backwards.

“Be careful, you’re still weak,” Crystal
said gently.

“Don’t worry; I’ve dealt with worse than
this,” Gavril assured her.

Crystal and Blaze then exchanged glances in
an awkward silence after remembering the scene of Gavril being
stabbed by the cursed dagger in Althea’s vision.

The whole town square remained speechless by
what just happened. Sigurd, Kerali, Maryn, and Taryn all walked
forward and knelt down in front of Crystal.

“You were all amazing!” Crystal praised
them.

To her shock, they then bowed their heads
before her and the crowd knelt and did the same. She let Blaze hold
onto Gavril, stood up, and announced, “You may all stand now. Go
and spread the word across the kingdom that Bogdan is dead and
Cierith is free!”

With that, the entire crowd stood up and
applauded.

****

By the next morning, nearly the entire
kingdom of Cierith had heard the news of Bogdan’s death. Those who
had long before lost hope of a peaceful future suddenly found
themselves celebrating life and looking forward to the next day.
Tears of fear and sorrow were replaced with tears of joy. For the
first time in ten years, the people of Cierith left their houses in
the middle of the night to dance in the moonlight and anticipate
the morning light.

And for the first time in their lives, the
small children that would someday be the future of Cierith could
sleep well that night knowing that they would still be alive in the
morning.

Bogdan’s body was cremated the next morning
and his ashes were spread in the forest surrounding Cartigo, as was
Valamar’s after they were gathered from the throne room. There was
also the question of what to do with Valamar’s riches. As Gavril
put it, Crystal was technically Valamar’s widow since he considered
her his wife, so she was entitled to everything he owned upon his
death. Crystal decided to sell Valamar’s estate and use all of his
wealth to not only rebuild Cierith, but also to help the
poverty-stricken citizens of Daldussa.

But most importantly, Crystal was now going
by her true name again. She wasn’t used to the name anymore, but
she knew that she didn’t have to hide her name anymore, and she
bore it proudly.

And so Princess Amelia was alive once
again.

Over the next week, the elders returned to
the City of Magi to tend to the Cierith refugees before telling
them about the liberation. Once they did, they sent with the
refugees a new robe for Amelia as a gift. It was the same design as
the one they lent her the last time she went, but this one was
red-violet in color rather than the previous pale green. They also
sent her a story book that Bredewig found. It was based off of the
hero who defeated Gaull, and the elders figured that she would like
it.

Blaze had opened the book to read it one day
and when Gavril saw it, he laughed and blurted out, “That was your
mother’s favorite book.”

Blaze suddenly felt like he got hit by a ton
of bricks when Gavril told him that, and he replied, “My mother
told me in the Lost Realm that she named me after the hero from her
favorite book . . .”

“That’s right, Blaze. That means you were
named after the hero who defeated Gaull,” Gavril replied.

Blaze flipped the book open furiously and,
sure enough, he saw his name written throughout the book.

Gavril then laughed again and said, “Isn’t
it funny how fate works out sometimes?”

****

Princess Amelia had some free time a week
after Bogdan’s death, so she decided to go for a walk to the garden
just outside the back of the castle. There had been massive damage
to the whole city as well as the castle itself and Amelia had had
her hands tied organizing the rebuilding of everything. She hadn’t
even been officially crowned yet and Amelia was already worn
out.

Amelia walked into the garden to find Blaze
waiting for her. He wore nice, clean clothing consisting of a
long-sleeved white shirt, a dark green tunic, brown pants, and dark
brown boots. He sat on the same stone bench that she sat on with
her parents on numerous occasions, and to her surprise, the tree
was still there beside the bench.

“I figured you would come here,” Blaze said
with a smile. He then stood up, approached her, and passionately
kissed her.

Amelia wrapped her arms around him and held
him while his lips brushed over and pressed against hers. For
several minutes, he moved his lips in unison with hers and she
melted when he slipped his tongue into her mouth.

He slowly pulled his lips away and locked
eyes with her for a brief, but intense moment. She felt herself
blushing and let out a nervous laugh. Blaze seemed to find it cute,
which embarrassed her more.

“By the way,” Amelia finally said softly,
“what was that promise my father was talking about?”

Blaze let out a small sigh and answered,
“The night we found your parents’ graves, I sneaked away while you
were sleeping and visited the graves again. While I was there, I
promised your parents that I would do whatever it takes to give you
your kingdom back and, if I made it out alive, I’d spend the rest
of my life making up to you the things that were stolen. I didn’t
think they would hear me but obviously, I was wrong.”

Amelia smiled humbly and bowed her head
trying to hide a tear.

“Well you’ve completed the first step and
lived through it as well,” Amelia stated after picking her head up
again. She then added, “So what is the next step?”

“Well, step two can only be achieved if you
want it to be, Crys—I mean, Amelia. Step three will also depend on
what you decide for step two,” Blaze said.

“What do you mean?” Amelia asked.

In response to her question, Amelia was then
surprised to see Blaze kneel before her on one knee, gently grab
her left hand, and ask, “Will you marry me?”

Amelia’s heart nearly stopped and tears
flooded her eyes and all the while, Blaze never flinched or looked
away from her.

“Yes . . .” she stammered out with joyful
tears, “Yes, Blaze, I will.”

With that, Blaze lunged upward and scooped
Amelia up in his arms. She let out a cry of surprise and laughed as
he held her up with his arms around her waist and then let her
down, kissing her again.

“But what will we do about the two
kingdoms?” Amelia asked after Blaze pulled away from the kiss.

“You and I will stay here and rule Cierith
where you belong. Bogdan wasn’t my real father and even though he
left no other heir, it doesn’t feel right for me to succeed the
throne in his place,” Blaze explained.

“So who will succeed the Daldussan throne if
you won’t?” Amelia asked.

Just then, a familiar voice called out from
behind her and said, “I will.”

Amelia turned to see Gavril also in new
clothing and with a haircut. His hair was now slicked back out of
his face as it was before, but it was cut just below his jawline
and he still had facial hair.

“Gavril, you’re going to be the king of
Daldussa?” Amelia asked in disbelief.

“I couldn’t care less about the throne or
the crown; I volunteered to take Blaze’s place because I knew he
wanted to stay here in Cierith with you. As my first act as his
father, I am giving Blaze the chance I never had with his mother, a
chance to be with the woman he loves,” Gavril said proudly.

Amelia embraced Gavril, who held her tightly
in return.

“It has been an honor to protect and teach
you, Amelia,” Gavril whispered.

“It’s been a privilege to be your friend,”
Amelia whispered back.

They pulled away from each other and Amelia
then lightheartedly watched as Gavril and Blaze embraced for the
first time as father and son. She knew that Althea would rest in
peace now that the two people she loved more than anything in the
world were now united in the way they were meant to be.

Still embracing his son, Gavril asked mostly
in a rhetorical manner, “I take it she said ‘yes?’”