WINDOWS: A BROKEN FAIRY TALE (28 page)

CHAPTER
25:
 
BEGINNING OF THE END

          
Work on a farm never really stops so
Raven and Sarah were kept to busy the next couple of days to have a chance to
talk.
 
A buffer of silence grew between
them, even Mrs. Browning commented on it to Sarah, but neither seemed willing
to budge.
 
Sarah knew that Raven was
watching her though, could feel the emerald eyes whenever she thought Sarah
wasn’t looking.
 

The distance hurt
her more than she let on.
 
Sarah lived
alone since her father died and never really had an outgoing personality
anyway.
 
The past several months changed
her, subtly but irrevocably, and now she found herself missing Raven’s constant
companionship.
 
She knew how she felt
about Raven, probably since the day they broke her out of prison.
 
Even before that if she wanted to be really
honest with herself.
 
She also had a
pretty good idea how Raven felt about her but forcing the issue would do more
damage than had already been done to their relationship.
 
So, with a heart that throbbed with
lonesomeness, she did her best to remain patient.

Sarah waited for
three days and eventually decided enough was enough.
 
She and Raven hadn’t spoken since their
argument and it was getting ridiculous.
 
Steeling her resolve for the confrontation, Sarah stepped out of the
small house and over to the chicken coop where Raven was busy nailing the
windows shut.
 
The first snow of the year
was upon them, the air holding a damper chill than the previous days and the
late afternoon sky was pearly white.

           
Raven
stopped mid-swing with the hammer as Sarah cleared her throat.
 
“We need to talk.”

           
“There’s
nothing to talk about, Sarah.
 
We can’t
be together, you know that.”

           
“No,
I don’t know that and don’t walk away from me.”
 
Sarah followed Raven around the corner of the coop and tried to say
something else but a muffled, insistent sound interrupted her.

“SIS!”
 
A voice screamed from inside Raven’s
jacket.
 
Instantly Raven dropped the
hammer and yanked the Congreve crystal from the warmth of her clothes.
 

Rebekah’s anxious
face stared at them.
 
“It’s starting,
Sis.
 
A group of airships was spotted
coming from the south.
 
We expect them to
be here within the hour.”

“Is it the
Protectorate?”
 
Raven asked as Sarah
stared over her shoulder.

“We don’t
know.
 
Possibly, but there’s no way to
know for sure.”
 

           
Raven
promised she would call when she got closer and dropped the crystal back into
its resting spot.
 
Seconds later Bryson
lumbered into the yard, stretching his great leathery wings.

           
“Did
you call for more landscaping?”
 
The
dragon greeted the two girls sarcastically but Raven was in a hurry.

           
“Sis
is in trouble.
 
How quick can you get us
to Valentria?”

           
“Quick
as the wind.”
 
Bryson lowered his head
and a jet of flame shot out of the corner of his mouth.

           
“Tell
the Brownings where I’ve gone and I’ll come back if I can.”
 
Raven spoke briskly to Sarah as she climbed
atop the dragon’s large, scaly back.

           
“To
hell with that, I’m going with you.”
 
Sarah insisted, trying to climb up behind Raven.

           
“Sarah,
it’s too dangerous.
 
Stay here and I’ll
come back, I promise.”

           
“You
bunch are the only family I have left.
 
I’m going.”
 
Sarah looked at the
dragon, “Right, Bryson.”

           
The
dragon said that arguing seemed pointless and that they were wasting time.
 
Raven considered, briefly, just leaving her
but the steely gaze in Sarah’s gray eyes nixed the idea.
 
Instead she offered the blonde a hand up.
 
Then they were off.

           
Miles
away, the attack on the city of Valentria
was just getting started.
 
Hundreds of
enemy soldiers flooded the city gates, the tramp of their boots shaking the
ground as far away as the castle.
 
The
Valentria royal guard stood ready for the challenge however and repealed the
first wave and then the second.

           
Standing
on top of the castle parapets with an expression carved from stone, Stephen
barked orders with Elspeth beside him.

           
“What
are we going to do about them?”
 
Amanda
pointed to five grayish blobs, indistinct against the pale sky but growing
larger by the moment.

           
“We’ll
have archers in the towers aiming for the balloons.”

           
Behind
her, where nobody could see, a thin smile twisted the corners of Brian’s lips.

           
Rebekah
ducked under the blade that just narrowly missed her neck.
 
Felicity’s own sword glinted through the air
as it pierced a soldier’s chest.

           
“Watch
your back.”
 
The oldest Chandlish
daughter reproved with a wry grin.
 
Every
where around them the sounds and smells of battle assaulted their senses.
 
Acrid smoke dimmed the noon day sun, stinging
her eyes and throat.
 
Underneath that was
a warm, coppery odor she had only experienced once before; the stench of fresh
blood.

They were sent by
Stephen with a small group of soldiers to help make sure as many people as
possible were in the shelters before the airships arrived but Brian’s
information proved incorrect.
 
The foot
soldiers appeared before the war ships and the Valentria forces were quickly
out numbered.
 
Thankfully she used her
crystal to call for backup.
 
Stephen
wanted to come but someone was needed to stay and protect their mother.
 
The reinforcements arrived just in the nick
of time.

           
“You
know, I don’t say this very often but I wish Sis was here.”
 
Bekah declared as she sent a fireball into an
onrushing group of enemies.
 
The
explosion catapulted them high into the air.
 
They landed with sickening crunches and lay still.

           
“You
say that all the time and exactly why do you want that traitor here?”
 
Felicity sent her own fireball at another
enemy cluster.

           
Bekah
smiled, standing back to back with Liz.
 
The two of them managed to form a defensive circle in a small courtyard,
keeping the advancing soldiers at bay.
 
On nearby roofs their own archers were raining death down on anybody
they missed.
 
“Sis isn’t the
traitor.
 
Never was.”

           
Felicity
started to say something but a small voice interrupted her.
 
“Liz, where are y’all?”
 
It was Mandy calling for them on the
crystal.
  

After a quick
glance around to make sure the encroaching soldiers were still being held at
bay by the archers, she answered.
 
“We’re
in front of Holzer’s department store.”

Mandy told her she
was on the way but Liz shook her head.
 
“No, stay at the castle.
 
We’re going to head back in a minute.”
 
The youngest daughter argued but Liz stood
firm.
 
She wanted to discuss some things
in relative private with Bekah.

Slipping the
crystal back into her shirt to be sure they wouldn’t be overheard, Liz turned
to Bekah and asked her to explain why she didn’t think Branwyen had betrayed
them.
 
Just then, as if she knew what was
being discussed, Raven’s voice bellowed.

           
Raven and
Sarah saw smoke rising above the mountains that provided the back line of
defense for Chandlish
Castle
and they felt the pounding explosions through the
freezing air.
 
Raven reached for the
Congreve crystal.
 
Instantly Rebekah’s
face appeared.

           
“What took you so long, brat?”
 
Sarah though Bekah looked like she was having
the time of her life.
 
“Liz is with me
and we’re taking a real beating.”
 

           
“Yeah, well we stopped for a bite on the way.
 
Where’s Elspeth at?”

           
“Daniel just told us Amanda and Brian are gonna her down
to the safe room so Stephen could focus on the battle.”

           
“Isn’t that a little odd?”
 
Raven couldn’t figure out why Brian and
Amanda would take Elspeth away from Stephen’s protection.
 
Even in the thick of battle, her safest place
would be at his side.
 
It made no sense
at all unless… By the Five!
 
The pieces
were starting to fall into place.

           
“Sis, I know who the- SIS!”
 
Raven screamed so loudly that it startled
Sarah and Bryson.
 
An explosion ripped
from the crystal and its smooth surface only reflected Raven’s mounting
worry.
 
Then something else caught her
eye.
 
A whole swarm of enemy soldiers
were standing at the secret exit to the castle safe room.
 
They couldn’t open it because they wouldn’t
have the mark of the White Rose but they were stopping her from getting in.

           
Bryson seemed to know exactly what she was thinking and
swooped out of the clouds.
 
The men on
the ground barely had time to realize the danger before being consumed by the
dragon’s flame.
 
The smell of burnt flesh
almost made Sarah gag when they set down in front of a seemingly innocent hill.

           
“Sarah, you’re with me.
 
Bryson, bring down those damned ships and rescue my sisters.”
 
Bryson took flight as Raven twisted her hands
into a spell, revealing a set of stone stair cases leading down into an empty
darkness.
 
Her mark might not work anymore
but her magic power was more than enough to get through.
 
Raven stepped inside and snapped her
fingers.
 
Instantly torches along the
wall sprang to life, illuminating the tunnel.

           
“When we get to the bottom, do exactly as I say.”
 
Raven didn’t wait for a response.
 
They raced quickly as they could down the
dimly lit path.

           
Stephen cursed, watching the losing battle.
 
Valentria’s men were more than a match for
the invading soldiers but the airships were raining flaming death everywhere,
indiscriminately destroying anything their shadows fell on.
 
Even now, a loud explosion rocked the castle
as another of the towers crumbled.
 
Without the archers there was no way to bring down the zeppelins.
 
Just when he started to give the order to
retreat, something large and black hurtled above his head.
 

           
A monster born of nightmares barreled into the fray,
roaring loud enough to wake the dead.
 
All spikes and wings, the terror bore down upon the nearest air ship,
fire bursting from its maw, incinerating the balloon that held the ship
afloat.
 
Before the weapons platform
could plummet into the courtyard below, the beast grabbed it and flung it far
to the left where it could do no damage.
 

           
Without pausing to see where the smoldering wreck landed,
Bryson twisted gracefully in the air, aimed at another ship.
 
This one fired a cannon but the dragon easily
avoided the projectile and let burst an inferno.
 
He would never admit it but he was starting
to find this whole afternoon quite entertaining.

Stephen
let out a sigh of relief.
 
If Bryson was
helping defend Valentria that meant Raven wasn’t the traitor, and he could
focus on the enemy soldiers on the ground.
 
It was just a matter of tidying things up and making sure Raven and
Bekah didn’t do what the enemy had attempted and destroy the castle during
their usually exuberant-- and often disastrous-- reunions.