Chapter Nineteen

The Present:

"Get your hands off her, Dreke."

Alanna glanced past the man who was glaring at her. Oh please, go Jon, go! she thought angrily, clenching her fists. This was her fight.

Jon came closer, his sword leveled at Dreke. "You killed my parents, you killed my friends. You will not kill her."

"I'm a knight!" Alanna snarled. It was true. She had survived her Ordeal, and now she was a knight of the realm. And now everyone knew she was a girl. "Jon, please. Go. I don't want you to get hurt. This is my fight."

Jon shook his head, his eyes locked on Dreke. "You don't get it, Alanna. You're all I have left. Dreke and Roger have killed everyone I love. Everyone except you. I love you."

Alanna growled, trying to fight back the tears in her eyes. She would not cry. It was touching, yes, but she was a knight. Knights did not cry. And besides, she couldn't love him. It was over for them, only he didn't know it yet.

Dreke smiled, glancing between Jon and Alanna. "As touching as this all is, I came here to kill you. And that is exactly what I plan to do. May I continue?"

A bolt of magic split the air, and Alanna launched herself to the side. The bolt chased her, and a blue barrier burst up in front of it. The magic died, shattering against the sapphire shield.

"I said leave her alone."

Dreke glanced at Jon, his eyes flashing. "And I said I came here to kill her. So let me."

"Forget it!" Alanna roared, leaping to her feet, Lightning already in hand. "As to both of you I'll fight my own battles, thank you very much." She pointed Lightning at Dreke. "Now, I'll kill you if you don't mind!"

"As a matter of fact," Dreke said lazily, hefting a silver-blue blade in his hand, "I do mind."

Alanna lunged, Lightning sweeping down. Dreke parried lazily, and brought his sword up. Lightning flashed in the moonlight, and blocked his blow. They were making such a ruckus that she wondered how no one else had come to help Dreke yet.

Another sword flashed into the fight, and Jon's blade caught on Dreke's. Alanna lunged forward, and Lightning sliced a fine cut in his side. He threw Jon's blade off, and kicked the younger man to the ground. Jon dropped and rolled, and was on his feet in a second. Lightning was up before Dreke could even try to strike, and he blocked widely as the smaller sword appeared in his face. Jon kicked him from behind, and Dreke's knees buckled. Alanna threw her shoulder into his stomach, and punched his face. She felt something give under her knuckles, and the warm gush of blood on her hand.

"Filthy wench!" Dreke snarled, dabbing at his bleeding nose with his shirt.

Jon hit Dreke in the side of the head with his sword's pommel, and Alanna drew Lightning across his throat. Blood spattered everywhere as Dreke gave his final death throes, and then was silent.

Alanna wiped Lightning on her breeches and sheathed it. Then she looked at Jon. His face was shadowed in the dark, but she could see the pain written in his expression. "I'm sorry," she whispered softly.

"What for?" Jon replied, his sword still in his hand.

"Everything." Alanna bit back a sob, and wiped irritably at the hotness at the corners of her eyes. "It's my fault all of this happened. If I hadn't been so Goddess damned eager to be a knight none of this would have happened." Then the tears did come, wiping tracks in the grime on her face. "I'm so, so, so sorry, Jon."

"It's okay," he whispered, putting his arms around her. The tears came hard as she cried into his chest. "It's too late now, Alanna. There's no turning back. Not now, not ever. It's the way it has to be."

At his words, anger surged in Alanna's chest. Her head beat with a thousand drums. "No, maybe there isn't," she managed, pulling back, and wiping tears from her face. "But there's at least one more man who has to die before I'm done."

"You're right."

Alanna pulled Lightning from its sheath, and watched as Jon followed suit. The nobles were all sitting around on the brick; laughing, talking, joking. None of them new what the two in the shadows had planned. Roger was seated at the center, dressed in gold robes and talking animatedly to a man in black.

In the darkness, Jon held out his hand. Alanna put Lightning in her left hand, and took his. Together they whispered a spell that Roger himself had taught them. It was a time blanket. It would slow time for everyone they cast it on. Pulling it taut around the whole area of nobles strained them, but they managed anyway.

Slowly, the nobles movement decreased. "Just get Roger," Jon warned, his face tight with the effort of the spell.

"No," Alanna said coldly. "They work with Roger. They all die tonight. It's the price they pay for getting on my bad side."

"No--"

But, Alanna had already lunged. She was in the group of nobles, Lightning flashing on them all before they could move to run. In the shadows, Jon cursed. If he moved, the spell would break, the nobles would be on Alanna. So, instead he was forced to watch as she killed those who might have been innocent.

Around Alanna the corpses of the dead dropped in slow motion. She turned on Roger, cold fury gleaming in her violet eyes. He stared, his expression stunned as he tried to fight out of the time-warp magic.

Lightning flashed once in the moonlight, and then Roger's head fell to the ground. Blood sprayed Alanna, but the cold joy in her eyes remained. Jon let the blanket drop and came to join her, bodies falling all around.

"Now, there's no turning back," Alanna said vehemently.

Snigger. That's the last chapter. The epilogue is all that's left.