Page 53 of Crown and Dragon

Chapter 25

Tahlia

The urge to follow the madman’s command was like a terrible itch under Tahlia’s skin. She set her jaw, refusing the crown’s demand, pushing it away like her thoughts were giant palms in sand made of magic.I am Tahlia. I will not go down like this. I refuse anyone else’s will being imposed on me. I have my own mind and I will use it.She chanted that inside her head. The magic shivered over her, but its influence weakened. She released her finger and glared at Durniad.

With a shout of pent-up rage, Marius launched himself at Durniad. He drove a fist into his throat. The crown went flying and freed Tahlia’s body. She spun and hit the nearest guard with an elbow to the temple. Drawing her dagger, she watched Marius snag one of his blades from the floor in a blur of incredible speed. They cut the guards down, but Durniad rose behind them. He went for the crown that had skidded across the floor. He placed it on himself.

“Guards!” he called over the labyrinth. “Kill my enemies!”

A rush of boots sounded at the beginning of the labyrinth and soon guards were pouring into the walled space. Their eyes were glazed and their movements frantic as they came with swords, fists, and even objects that were never meant to serve asweapons—a set of manacles, what appeared to be a hair comb from one man’s pocket, and a scroll one fellow brandished like a knife.

The guard who had helped Tahlia and Marius earlier swung a book at Tahlia. She ducked, set her head on the woman’s hip, and grabbed the backs of the woman’s knees. The guard went down with a grunt.

They couldn’t maintain this level of fighting. The walls beckoned.

Tahlia kicked a man’s stomach, throwing him back. She jumped off the back of a staggering, mostly collapsed guard whom Marius had hit and leapt onto the top of the labyrinth’s walls.

“Up here!” she called down to Marius.

He bent his knees and jumped up beside her, and then they were running, dodging arrows, and leaping over sloppily tossed daggers.

The doorway into the chamber was empty. All the occupants within hearing range of the crown’s influence must have already entered the labyrinth.

“What’s our plan?” Tahlia asked as they jumped down and fled the chamber.

“Run like those cakes you love are at the end!”

Tahlia cackled as they swept up the stairs and ran out the side door of the fortress. There weren’t any guards anywhere. The larger street they came out on was still flowing red with tomatoes, and people were dancing and playing pipes and lutes everywhere. Mugs were lifted and toasts shouted as Tahlia and Marius wove through the mess of humanity.

“We Fae should take a page from their books,” Tahlia said loudly as they came to a meat pie cart that had been overturned in the ruckus.

Marius grabbed her wrist and turned them down an alleyway that headed roughly toward the city gates.

“I’m serious,” she said, glancing at his scowling face. “They aren’t worried about appearances. Only fun, fun, and more fun. Our kind could use some more of that.”

She didn’t feel odd saying our kind because she had been raised in the Realm of Lights as a Fae and had always considered herself Fae even though she was half. But looking around at the humans, she realized this was what she’d been missing. This pure and simple embracing of joy. This was part of what it meant to have human blood.

“Less talking. More running, Tahlia.”

A now familiar voice carried on the wind, the words strung out as if shouted from afar.

“People of Midhampton, stop the white-haired Fae male and small half-Fae female if you see them. Use whatever means necessary to bring them alive to me.”

The command held no spark of magic that Tahlia could feel, but that was likely only because Durniad hadn’t directed the order at her. Or was it because she had fought the magic earlier and managed to break its hold?

“How does he know you are full Fae and I’m half?” she asked.

“I moved easily against him,” Marius said. “Your movements were clearly hindered. I’m thinking he is simply very good at making judgment calls.”

Marius led her to the edge of the main street with Bodwin Bridge in the near distance. The entire mass of humans dropped their hands to their sides and their smiles fell into flat looks of magical obedience.

They started toward Tahlia and Marius.

“Well, this is just fantastic. What’s our new plan? Because running for cakes seems a tiny bit completely impossible at the moment.”

They backed up as three men and a woman neared them, one with a pipe extended like a blade and the other two with hands outstretched.

Grimacing, Tahlia moved back another step and glanced over her shoulder, probably to check for more humans approaching. Thankfully, that side was clear.

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