A/N: I've finally finished the next chapter! Hope you all enjoy it very much, and as you've probably noticed before, yeah I do have a thing for cliffhangers… :P
Chapter 12: Heat of the Moment
Rohan was lying on the ground, shocked and unmoving, feeling as if the blast from Deirdre's crossbow had hit him instead of his best friend. Just a second ago, Angus had been standing above him, his sword ready to deliver the final blow, when the princess had suddenly shot at the former thief, sending him crashing into the burning hut next to them.
For a brief moment, Rohan seemed to be paralysed, but then the Whirlwind Crossbow hit the ground with a clatter and the princess rushed forward, only to be stopped by the scorching heat of the fire.
"Angus!" Deirdre's eyes were fixed on the burning remains in front of her, and it was her heart-wrenching cry that finally pulled the Mystic Knight of Fire out of his stupor.
He got up in a swift movement and turned his head to see if there was any way to get to his trapped friend, but the roof of the building and parts of the walls had carved in, blocking his view effectively.
Swallowing hard, Rohan forced himself to move away from the flames to get his sword, which he had lost in the fight with Angus just about a minute ago. He needed to call his armour if he wanted to move further into the burning hut, but when he approached the weapon, his eyes fell on the Temra soldiers, who were still in the village, seemingly uncertain about what to do next. They wouldn't dare to take on two Mystic Knights on their own, and without knowing what had happened to Angus, their bravery had dissipated.
Although it wouldn't have taken much to scare them away, Rohan ignored the men, having bigger concerns at the moment. He took the sword of Kells from the ground and rushed back to where his best friend had vanished, ready to call his mystic armour and walk right into the flames with it.
"Fire with–" His arm raised into the sky, Rohan was shouting the summoning spell, when suddenly the loud sound of splintering wood in front of him interrupted him. He was startled for a second and only barely managed to get a hold of Deirdre and pull them both out of the way, when without further warning several blazing pieces of wood came flying in all directions.
The two knights crashed to the ground and the blond man ended up lying on top of the princess to protect her from the charred debris raining down on them. His breath caught in his throat as their eyes met and he noticed her blush even in the tangerine light of the fires.
"Are you alright?"
The young woman hesitated a second, too flustered to answer immediately, but when she noticed the worried expression in Rohan's eyes she nodded quickly.
"Yes. Yes, I'm fine."
As much as they both appreciated their closeness, there was no time to savour the moment, when their attention was drawn back to what was happening right next to them. There was movement in the remains of the wooden building and when they looked closer, they realised that a figure was emerging from the fire and moving in their direction.
Surprised, Rohan stood up immediately and tried to see something against the bright light of the flames.
"Angus, are you alright?" he shouted, concern for his friend more than evident in his voice. He extended a hand to Deirdre to help her to her feet, but without so much as looking in her direction.
There was no answer at first and Rohan got increasingly worried, but since he was still wearing his normal clothes, he couldn't move any further, as the fire was holding him back.
"Angus, please, say something!" Now it was Deirdre who called out to their friend, but when the man approaching them remained silent, she couldn't help herself but reach out for Rohan's arm and pull him back with her.
Angus was now wearing his armour, but it didn't look like it used to. The golden ornaments which had decorated the silver surface before, were now a dark black, creating an ominous look that was only intensified by the image of a three-headed dragon adorning the top of the helmet. Where formerly Pyre had been portrayed, now Tyrune was depicted, destroying any doubt there might have been left as to Angus' allegiance.
He was holding his mace, the battle sword of Temra nowhere in sight, and slowly walked through what had been left of the former village council building.
"Angus, I didn't mean to…" Deirdre's voice broke off as she tried to apologise for nearly killing her friend, but he didn't seem to care much about her regrets. Without warning, the Mystic Knight of Earth raised his weapon and knocked it forcefully onto the ground, sending not only a shockwave through the soil which nearly threw Rohan and Deirdre off their feet, but also causing the surrounding flames to burst higher into the direction of his former friends.
Rohan, who had so far been ignoring Deirdre's attempts of getting him to back away from Angus, now complied, while trying to shield himself and the princess from the flames.
"It's no use, we have to call our armour, 'cause I don't think he will let us get out of this without a fight. Fire within me!" Wasting no time, Rohan pointed the sword of Kells into the dark night sky and his red and golden armour appeared instantly, making the heat around him much more bearable.
Deirdre wanted to follow his lead, but as she had dropped her crossbow earlier, she had to run over to get it first, but was stopped before she had even managed to cross the distance.
Knowing that their leader was still part of the battle, the Temra soldiers had pulled themselves back together and had seized the opportunity to get to the princess of Kells as long as she was separated from her mystic weapon. A group of four men had charged at Deirdre and had managed to get a hold of her, while a fifth had taken the crossbow from the ground and moved behind the line of other soldiers.
Rohan, who was completely taken by surprise by this sudden attack, aimed his sword at the men holding Deirdre in a desperate attempt to free her, but he knew of course that his enemies were at the advantage.
"Let her go, right now!" he shouted angrily, but only managed to receive a laugh from Angus, who had stepped out of the fire a few meters behind him and was now slowly circling the knight in the red armour almost casually.
"Do you really expect anyone to believe you would be willing to risk this shot? No, as long as you might hurt your precious little princess, you wouldn't dare to strike." He smirked as he added almost as an afterthought,
"Just imagine what that would do to the reputation of Draganta, if you accidentally set her on fire." He trailed off laughing, which only infuriated Rohan even more.
Even underneath the helmet of his mystic armour, his eyes gave away his emotions all too clearly. He was desperate to save Deirdre and tried to come up with a solution, any solution to accomplish that task. They were looking into each other's eyes for the second time now within the last few minutes, but this time the emotions that came with it were painfully different. Seeing the princess in this danger made it hard for the blond man to concentrate and for lack of any better idea, he finally decided to make a move he had vowed to himself not to resort to.
Rohan turned away from Deirdre and the soldiers holding her and instead faced Angus and aimed the sword of Kells at his chest. Then he made the front part of his helmet retract so the former thief could see his face as he tried to reason with him, his expression grim.
"Let her go, Angus! If you're angry about what happened to you, you can let that out on me, but leave Deirdre out of this."
His opponent sighed, betraying his frustration that his former friend still didn't understand his motivation.
"You really think I'm doing this for revenge? Believe me, Rohan, this is nothing personal, I'm only fighting for the aims of my queen and the glory of Temra. But I'm not unreasonable. I know we won't seize Kells in one day, so I'm willing to let you and the princess go. If you retreat."
"And let you take the border? You can't expect me to do that," Rohan exclaimed angrily, causing Angus to lose his patience. His eyes narrowed dangerously and he gave a small signal to his men, who immediately tightened their hold on the princess. One of the soldiers even put the blade of his sword at her throat, making both her and Rohan flinch.
"I am going to take the border, whether you let me or not," Angus explained calmly, but with an audible edge to his voice. "The troops you chased away from the castle have the order to regroup back here and I guess they will arrive soon. So I have my men here, Deirdre's life in my hands and reinforcements on the way; you can't stop me. But, let's say for the sake of old times, I'm willing to let you both get away unharmed. Though I won't make that offer twice, so stop playing the hero already and accept that you've lost today."
Rohan looked at Deirdre once more and although he knew that she didn't want him to trade her safety for a part of Kells, he also knew that he didn't have any other choice if he didn't want to lose her, too.
Without taking his eyes off of the princess, Rohan nodded eventually, angry at himself for allowing the situation to get out of hand like this and hoping desperately that he hadn't just sealed the fate of the kingdom by giving in to Angus.
"Alright, you've won for now. We'll leave, so tell your men to let Deirdre go already."
Despite their agreement, however, the man in the silver and black armour wasn't ready to let his captive go just yet. He turned his back to Rohan and walked over to the princess, but the smirk on his face transcended into his voice, making his malicious arrogance impossible to miss, despite the blond man not being able to see his face.
"Not so fast! I'm glad that you've finally come to realise the hopelessness of your situation, but I'm afraid I can't let Deirdre get away this easily. After all she almost killed me." Angus was standing right in front of the red headed woman now and stroked gently with the back of his hand across her cheek. His voice dropped to a whisper, so only the princess and the soldiers holding her could hear him.
"It just wasn't enough to see me fall off that cliff, right? This time you had to make sure yourself that I was gone for good. But I'll admit, I hadn't expected you to be the first who would try to kill me. I'm impressed, really."
Tears were running down Deirdre's face as she looked up at Angus with a mixture of sadness and defiance in her eyes.
"You have no idea what you're talking about. We were all devastated when we thought you had died and this just now," her eyes flickered to the still burning building behind him for just a heartbeat, the sadness in them growing stronger with every second, "I didn't mean to do that. But you were trying to kill Rohan; I had no time to react differently."
They just stared at each other for a moment, but before Angus could answer, Rohan's voice came from behind him, the leader of the Mystic Knights sounding less than pleased with the change of plans.
"What are you trying to pull here, Angus? I agreed to let you take a huge area of Kells, that's not what I would call 'getting away easily'."
The Temra fighter redirected his attention back to his former friend, a smile on his face that seemed almost honest, had the situation been any different.
"Oh, don't worry, I'm not going to hurt her. After all, I promised to let you get away unharmed and I am someone who keeps his promises. But the princess and you have to learn that there are consequences to your actions." At this point, he called one of his men over to him, and with growing uneasiness Rohan recognised the object the soldier was carrying. Deirdre's crossbow.
Following his leader's orders, the young man laid the weapon down on the ground and then stepped away from it hurriedly.
The smirk was back on Angus' face as he approached the crossbow now slowly, while intensifying his grip on his own mystic weapon. As realisation dawned in both of his former friends, it was Deirdre who reacted first, begging Angus to stop.
"No, don't! You have no right to do that. King Fin Varra gave the crossbow to me and by destroying it you would not only betray him, but everything our weapons and we ever stood for."
"The only thing your weapons stand for, is too much power in the wrong people's hands. And I'm going to put an end to that now."
While the princess was still kept in check by the Temra soldiers, and Rohan couldn't do anything because of that, the Mystic Knight of Earth swung his mace vigorously and hit the Whirlwind Crossbow with a resounding blow.
The connection of the two mystic weapons sent sparks flying, and to Deirdre's horror the impact of the rock was strong enough to make the magically enhanced wood of the crossbow splinter into pieces while the metal parts were bent unrecognisably.
Taking a deep, satisfied breath, Angus signalled the soldiers to release the princess and they stepped back from her immediately, while still keeping an alert pose, ready to attack again. For tonight, however, there was no doubt that the battle was over; Temra had won.
"Now you can go."
It was a joyful day in the castle of Temra with a large feast being held to celebrate the first real victory over Kells since the appearance of the Mystic Knights. And while the man who had achieved all this had wanted to remain at the border for the time being, the queen herself had ordered him back to the castle, saying that the new hero of the kingdom needed to be honoured adequately.
"To Angus, whose brilliant strategy and courageous actions in battle brought this long-awaited victory to Temra." Maeve had stood up from her chair at the head of the table and was holding her goblet into the air, proposing a toast to her newest fighter. The high-ranking members of the army assembled at the table followed her lead and rose from their seats as well, lifting their tumblers in unison.
"To Angus!" Nectar was spilled all over the table, while the dark haired man, who was at the centre of all this attention, let his eyes wander across the present soldiers slowly, taking in their boastful expressions with a vague sense of disgust. He hated how they were acting as if the war had already been won, but he knew better than to say anything that might alienate his allies, so he just nodded to them and raised his own cup to return their toast.
Across from the former thief the general of Temra's forces was sitting, trying his best not to let the anger burning inside of him show. As he had expected, the useless Mystic Knights had not been able to handle their mutual problem alone, leaving him to deal with the arrogant fool by himself. But he was prepared.
Torc slowly felt for the glass vial hidden inside his sleeve and smiled to himself as his fingers touched the small object. All he needed to do now was play nice until he got the opportunity to spike Angus' drink a little and eliminate his biggest rival, hopefully without drawing any attention to himself.
To not look suspicious in any way, the general had engaged in a conversation with the soldier next to him, but when he noticed that Angus' goblet was nearly empty, he dismissed his subordinate and leaned towards the man in the completely black clothes, his face as friendly as he could manage.
"This is not the time to let one's cup become empty. In celebration of this significant triumph over Kells I'll get our hero of the hour something more to drink." He took the goblet from the dark haired man, receiving a surprised frown in return, and went over to the other end of the table where a mug full of nectar was standing.
Making sure that no one could see what he was doing, Torc poured the content of the vial into the drinking vessel, then filled it up with nectar so nobody would notice a difference. He returned to his seat and wanted to hand the goblet back to Angus, but to his immense shock, Maeve intercepted his hand before the other man could reach for his drink.
"This is a quite unexpected, but highly appreciated gesture, Torc. I had been under the apparently wrongful impression that you were looking for a confrontation with Angus about your respective positions in my forces, but I am glad that appearances can be deceiving." The queen took the goblet from Torc's slightly shaking hand, apparently without noticing his nervous behaviour, and gave it to Angus, before picking up her own drink and directing her attention back to all the attendants of the feast.
"To the glory of Temra and the not so distant day when we will all be celebrating in the halls of Kells Castle after we have destroyed our enemies once and for all."
The soldiers cheered at that prospect and everyone raised their tumblers to return the toast before drinking the nectar greedily. Torc was moving very slowly as he watched how Angus was about to take a sip, too, readying himself for the commotion that might take place as soon as the Mystic Knight suddenly awoke from the spell cast over him. He even held his breath unconsciously, relieved that his time playing only the second fiddle in Maeve's plans was over now, when the dark haired man started to drink.
To be continued…
