men in front of them stood back up and collected their senses.
Dominic needed no prodding as they moved in quickly to engage the intruders before they could recover their weapons from the ground. Tristan was approaching his first target when he called out, "Tartarus inferi" and his sword glowed in a blue flame as he struck at the first man. Dominic moved in on a second. Alec waited for the two men who were behind them to engage before he struck, while Ava took the opportunity to pull a second dagger from a fold in her cloak.
Believing that he faced an inexperienced youth, the first attacker made a fatal mistake; as he raised his sword to strike, Alec drove in fast with Shadow Fang and his sword bit deep into the unfortunate warrior's flesh. The battle was on!
Ava saw her brother take down a man to her right, and immediately more men jumped out of the shadows. She tensed as she heard Tristan strike and kill another man-of-arms with his sword Silver Bane. Dom had already sunk his royal sword Ghost Touch into many a foe. He pressed forward to engage another. How she wished to have the familiar handle of her sword, Last Kiss! Despite the fact that women were not allowed to train in the martial arts. Well she trained harder than most men train, and wished that she could defy tradition and had worn her sword as her brothers did. Without Last Kiss, she had to make do with her daggers and her magic.
Ava's training became a significant advantage for her in this skirmish with the first enemy she encountered. The ferociousness of her attack surprised the thug, who was not expecting a woman to be skilled in battle. Ava gripped her daggers and twirled quickly around her attacker, sinking one dagger into the stomach of that unfortunate soul. Blood now soaked his shirt as the man-at-arms started falling backwards.
Ava had to parry the thrust of another warrior because she tarried too long trying to retrieve her first dagger from the body of the unfortunate opponent. She grabbed the dying man's sword from his weakened hand and swung it under her arm to stop the progress of a man approaching from behind her. Her gown severely restricted her freedom of movement, a gown now covered with the blood of her unknown assailants.
They fought their way down the hall, "There are a lot of them!" Dominic called as he led them all into Ava and Aleczander's chambers. Tristan closed and locked the door and stood by while Alec and Dominic searched the room.
The sounds of the palace guard fighting the men-of-arms filled the hallways. After what seemed like an eternity, the noise subsided. The four children of Henry waited in the room for the all-clear signal so they could reunite with their mother and father. Dominic stood guard at the door while Tristan stood at the window that was open to the yard.
Dom heard the call of the captain of the guard at the door, who relayed the prearranged code. Dominic looked back at his siblings and nodded before he opened the door. Many men lay wounded or dead in the upper atrium as the guard addressed him.
"Sire, is all well with you, your brothers, and your sister?" the captain inquired.
"Yes, captain, we fared well. Is the enemy still in the castle?" Dominic asked as he stepped out the door into the atrium.
"Yes, but we have driven them to the concourse. Your father has joined the fight and sent me to see to you, your brothers, and sister," he replied.
"Tristan, it looks like things have settled down here. Let us go and help father clean up what remains." Dominic looked toward Alec, "Alec, lock the doors behind us and wait for our return. I believe this will be over soon."
Dominic and Tristan darted out of the room and turned down the hall toward the sounds of battle. Alec closed and locked the door and turned to Ava. "What the heck is going on here? We never actually had to fight before, though we have had plenty of drills. I never expected to have to use my skills for real!" Alec was clearly upset.
"Keep your voice down, Alec. We're alive, and together, and that's what matters." She turned and looked at the door. She knew that behind it was blood. There was lots of blood. She thought about the recent events and realized that it was not the actual blood or the battle that bothered her, but what the result of her actions meant, the real meaning. She thought about the loss and the lives that she and her siblings had extinguished. The men would have no second chance to change who they were and what they had done. They were condemned to the abyss, to the darkness. There would be no chance for redemption.
"The time will come when we will draw our first drink of blood, and that will be the day of sorrows."
Ava recalled the words of Last Kiss and now understood their meaning. Her innocence was now lost, forever.
She had not realized how much it would bother her to take a life, but it was necessary in some situations, and this had been one of them. Dom and Tris would tease her and call her weak. To care for the lives of the enemy you took was not something you are supposed to allow yourself to feel.
As Alec looked at his sister, trying to understand her sudden silence, Ava jumped to her feet and grabbed Last Kiss. Sensing the danger from behind the tapestry on the wall, Alec jumped up with Shadow Fang and stood beside her.
Faster than they thought possible, a dark figure moved out from behind the tapestry and angled toward the pair. Ava, mostly on instinct, parried the lightning thrust, clearly aimed at her heart.
"An assassin, he came in through our training yard passage!" Ava yelled to Alec.
Alec was kicking himself mentally for not checking the passage when he and his brothers checked the room. He closed the distance with the assassin to help keep his sister safe. This guy is good, Alec thought, not your standard man-at-arms. How is he managing to keep both of us from scoring a hit? A dance of blades continued for what seemed an eternity before Alec allowed himself to become distracted. The assassin took quick advantage of this critical mistake and came in under Alec's thrust to score a vicious slash to his arm.
"Arrrrgh." The blow forced Alec to withdraw a few steps, clearly out of the fight for the moment.
Ava, seeing her brother's distress, stepped in front of her brother to keep the assassin from finishing the job. She could not contain the rage building inside her as she directed the power of her magic at the assassin.
Alec was holding his wound to staunch the bleeding. "Ava, no!" he shouted, as he watched his sister lose control. Her eyes were changing colors rapidly now.
As the assassin stepped in to what he thought was going to be an easy strike, the man looked into her blazing golden eyes. The assassin's eyes widened as a burst of wild energy exploded from her body. The burst of lightning and power blew him into the wall. Her magic immediately extinguished the life of assassin; Ava's power was too immense for him to survive the attack.
"Ava, regain control! You must regain control!" Alec yelled. Ava did not hear him as the energy continued to flow from her body, igniting the tapestry on the wall. Seeing the tapestry burst into flames and realizing his sister was lost in the power, Alec yelled a prayer, "Adara, help us!"
Alec covered his head, expecting the castle to collapse under the assault of Ava's uncontrolled magical power. As a soft light filled the room, Alec heard a whisper in his head just before he passed out, all will be well, my son.
…
Alec opened his eyes as he heard Ava speaking through the door: "Who wishes to speak to the willow?" Willow was actually one of Ava's chosen names; all of the royal family members had code names that described trees in the royal garden. The royal family never shared these names outside the family.
"Birch wishes it to be so." Ava smiled and opened the door for their father. The queen followed the king into the room and turned toward Alec with a look of concern. He now realized that he was lying in a pool of his own blood. Some of the elite guards were behind the pair and turned back to guard the door to the siblings' chambers.
Alec's mother saw the severity of the gash on his arm and started an incantation as she held her hand over the wound, "Lumen sano!" Alec's pain began to lessen. As she finished saying the phrase, the wound stopped bleeding and closed up.
"Well, Alec, it looks like you managed to get your first battle scar," Dominic said as he and Tristan