Benjamine.

  Blood pumped in Benjamine’s ears as she hurried up the winding staircase, heart pounding in her chest as she risked a gnce over her shoulder.

  “Get down, my dy!”

  Suddenly, Benjamin’s whole world found itself rapidly approaching the floor!

  The young woman screamed with indignation and surprise, even as several bolts whistled through the air. The horrible gurgle and rasp of bloody breaths were nearly drowned out by the cmor of battle just outside the keep.

  One of her guards tumbled down the stairs, a gleaming protrusion sticking from his neck and when she gnced up. Captain Solizar’s boot was still held high, even after he’d kicked the man into their pursuers, the bastards below already swapping pces with those behind them for more crossbows.

  Benny wanted to shriek in fury as she scrabbled as best she could on all fours, desperately fighting against gravity, the stairs, and her damned dress!

  Whoever, throughout the history of fashion, had decided that women would be required to wear great and eborate frilly monstrosities of cloth and wire had clearly never envisioned what it might be like to wear one such garment during an uprising.

  Truly, if Benjamine could have stuck a hot poker through the talentless cretin’s eye socket, she’d have been able to die happy knowing she cooked his brain from the inside like a fried egg.

  As it happened, more of her ridiculous attire was torn and shredded as she filed! Finding herself nearly yanked into the mass of grotesque peasantry and disloyal soldiers that were harrying her fleeing procession all the way up the tower.

  Solzar’s bde fshed, bisecting a ruddy farmer’s face as his snarling and depraved expression practically slobbered with all the disgusting fantasies he doubtless imagined of her, should he be the one to manage the capturing his previous lord’s only daughter.

  Doubtless eager, as many had shouted at her today, 'to teach her a lesson.’

  Benny snarled as she scraped at the floor, kicking out with a slippered foot to crunch the nose of yet another reprobate pretending at revolution! Her heel cracking the man’s skull with her increased strength.

  “Get on your fucking feet already!”

  “I’m trying!” she hissed, gring at her father’s captain of the guard as two of his men yanked her bodily toward them, allowing her to push past their momentary blockade as they remained behind to try and stem the tide of attackers.

  “Where the hell is my father? The army?”

  “They won’t be here in time, you stupid girl! They’re all the way in Isndor. News of this won’t even reach them before we’re dead if you don’t move your pampered ass.”

  Benjamine wanted to scowl at the foul-mouthed man, gring for a single moment before the hysteria of combat ushered her back into motion.

  The guards wouldn't st long; And even if they were higher level on average, armed, armored, and skilled when compared to their foes, the numbers were sadly not on their side…

  Yanking a knife from Solizar’s belt as they both rushed up the stairs, the young woman did her best to try and cut away the errant strips of cloth that threatened to trip her, even as she ran.

  Her pace was slowed a fraction, falling behind Solizar, but it was worth it once the fabric and wire were free, and she was once again able to climb without the threat of splitting her forehead against the stone.

  They reached the door leading to the castle roost in heaving pants. Their levels (and sacrificial guards) allowed them to gain a significant distance over their pursuers, but the echo of their furious shouts dogged them all the way to the rge banded iron door.

  Solizar pushed through first, turning partway to look at Benjamine with an abrupt twist to his countenance. The wild and crazed look in his eye letting her know in an instant what was going through his deplorable mind.

  There were only two drakes left in the tower.

  All the others had been ridden away by her father’s elite forces as they marched off to fight Count Jokovin’s blighted border war with his own cousin!

  And now, because she’d been born a dy, sired by a knight, powerful as he was, Benjamine was going to die because some asshole in a county she’d scarcely seen more than twice in her life decided he was going to try and expand his nds.

  If she had a knife, which she did possess in hand, and the means to castrate the Count before the royal court of Tartwell itself, Benny would have paid any price to be allowed to slowly drag the heated steel across the man’s scrotum, just so she might feed him his own balls while his children watched.

  The problem, as it were, was, as she'd said, a numbers one.

  And being just a dozen steps ahead of her allowed her father’s guard captain to realize what Benny already had.

  The roost still had two drakes, it was true, but one of them was 'Old Kirk.' A diseased, crusty, blind, and deaf mongrel of a beast that had been left alive to live out the rest of its days through sheer virtue of having been her grandfather’s mount.

  The other was her own.

  Carmina…

  A stunningly ruby-scaled, temperamental but spirited beauty of an animal that she’d raised from a small egg. And potentially the only individual of intelligence within her father’s keep that she actually got along with...

  And that was only because the drake didn't ask questions.

  She was the perfect example of a well-mannered young dy, so long as it was Benjamine who was trying to ride her. Anyone else and, well… good luck.

  Still, the problem, as it stood, was that Solizar had very clearly noticed that there were only two drakes present, only one of which could carry a singur rider and, quick as a cutpurse’s fingers, had determined that the math didn't quite work in his favor.

  The momentary look of grim resolve that crossed his features as he partially turned back to the door, making eye contact with his lord’s daughter as she raced up the stairs, felt like an eternal moment stretched toward infinity itself as the pair of them each realized what was about to happen…

  “Carmina! Eat him!” she screeched, even as the man’s eyes grew wide with surprise, his hand already on the heavy door and pushing it closed, but spinning around in the next heartbeat, bde raised before he could fully shut it.

  From behind, the ruby-scaled drake hissed its discontent, serpentine eyes narrowing to slits as it reared, roaring before lunging at the man!

  Benny had just enough time to clear the doorway as her drake growled with agony and fury! Captain Solizar dancing away from the beast, his sword scoring a long ssh along the drake’s face as he backed off, pushing deeper into the room as his new adversary hemmed him in.

  She threw the heavy bolt, clunked the weighty wooden bar in pce, then spun, dagger still in hand, gring at the older man as her boiling fury at his duplicitous and cowardly actions filled her nearly to bursting!

  “When my father hears you tried to lock me out of my own roost!”

  “I’ll be what? Flogged?” the man ughed, even as her pet cried out in agony again, shying away from the horrid bite of steel and the rather competent man behind it. “Oh, little girl, you’ve, hahaha! You’ve no idea how right fucked you are, do you?”

  Benjamine frowned at the soldier, the knife in her grip suddenly feeling not quite adequate enough as she eyed her retreating drake and the long, dripping weapon that was keeping her at bay…

  “You’re my father’s—”

  “Oh, piss off with that shite, will ya? Can't you see the writing on the walls? The keep’s fucked!” He spat, snarling through yellowing teeth as he pivoted, shifting course to begin following the retreating drake, his flinty eyes cold and without mercy.

  “Now, because you’re not seeming to get it through your pretty little skull, young miss, let me expin what typically happens to the prior occupants of castles once they’ve been captured.”

  Benny didn't need to hear any more; she already knew what her fate would be if she were, Gods forbid, taken alive…

  No, that was a fate far worse than that which she typically imparted upon those in her father’s dungeon. Even when she was trying to break them for information… She’d never resorted to the sorts of things that would unquestionably be done to her if swarmed by the rabble outside…

  “They’re gonna rape ya!” Solizar ughed, slicing at Carmina, who wailed as another wound opened across her chest. “They’re gonna take turns!” he continued, cutting again as Benjamine lifted her hand to begin incanting a spell, but too te.

  Furious, her drake, in a bid of desperation, lunged at the salted killer, falling right into his trap!

  At once, the man swerved, bending away from the crunching maw, avoiding death by the skin of his teeth, but not without offering reprisal!

  Benny screamed as the magic formed at her fingers, her water spell taking control of the guard captain’s blood, even as his bde swept through her beloved companion’s neck!

  Carmina’s head flopped to the floor in a geyser of her own blood. Her stump whipping wildly back and forth in a fountain of her life’s essence, even as her body yet refused to fully die...

  By contrast, Benjamine yanked on as much fluid as she could manage, Solizar’s gaze growing momentarily wide with surprise as she easily bypassed his magical defenses and tore his insides through every orifice she could find!

  Brains and blood momentarily caused his eyes to bulge like grotesque eggs as they were dispced from their sockets, but a heartbeat before a hideous sptter filled the room! His body dropping limply to the floor as his internals came flooding out from within.

  Benjamin smiled hatefully at her father’s captain, sneering at the man she’d known her whole life, but never truly cared for.

  Her entire family was little more than a pack of scheming geese who all fancied themself too good for their stations. And even though her father had magnanimously offered many of his own cousins, nieces and nephews pcement in his employ, look what the loyalty had bought him.

  Her own cousin, not even nobility, trying to kill her—her! All so he could save his own cowardly skin.

  Heck, he’d been the most loyal of the motley bunch... The rest of the bastards all having ties to the ringleaders of this absolute mess, if not existing as the damned instigators themselves!

  Of couse, Benny had theorized her kin might be behind the rumours of dissonance she was attempting to root out and discover, and she’d been close to uncovering the truth, she was sure of it.

  However, after seeing Cousin Luis sughter no fewer than three of her personal guards, it was all but confirmed that her deceitful kin were somehow to bme for all of this...

  Didn't the peasants understand that absolutely nothing would change for them, no matter who it was they called lord?

  Didn't they know that the king’s taxes and levies and tribute wouldn't just freaking disappear because they suddenly took a castle?

  No!

  King Walce would march his banners right down their godforsaken throats and wouldn't be gentle about passing through the other side as they went!

  No wonder her family had managed to rile them all up. The commoners were even dumber than she thought...

  Honestly, they really couldn't have fallen further in her estimation, but clearly, there was still room to dig.

  Perhaps, when they finally got deep enough and hit the old trines, then they would learn what it was like to be burned alive by vengeful dragon-riders. The very same that could melt stone with their fmes.

  And at that point, they would truly understand just how good they’d actually had it…

  Still, that didn't necessarily help her in the moment…

  The sudden smming of the roost’s door caused Benjamine to whirl! Her heart returned to its prior rapid pace as she desperately gnced around for a solution to her problems.

  She was an elemental mage, with a specialty of water. Blood, to be precise, but most people didn't know that about her. Or, if they did, they didn't speak of it aloud.

  What could a water-mage exactly do without a rge body of water while trapped at the top of a tower?

  Haha…

  Precious little…

  Should she use her drake’s blood to freeze the door? Well, it might buy her a little time, but it was hot as hell outside! Right in the middle of Infirni.

  Not only would ice magic be more difficult and cost more mana, but the damned stuff would probably start melting within minutes...

  Maybe a waterslide made of blood?

  No…

  Ignoring that she’d never have enough to actually reach the ground, her home was surrounded and filled with people who wanted her head!

  So where did that leave her?

  Should she surrender?

  Try to bargain for her life?

  Convince whoever was trying to run this chaotic shitshow that she was worth more alive and unharmed than dead?

  Admittedly, she could deal with the immediate issues: bruises, broken bones, humiliation, and yes, even some undoubted and unwanted attempts to impregnate her…

  All of that could be mended, fixed, or otherwise endured if only it meant she got to survive.

  Her pride could take the beating; it wasn't so fragile as most, and she could work out how to extract her pitiless vengeance after the fact.

  Yet, getting from the tower to whoever was calling the shots would probably be difficult.

  She wasn't exactly 'beloved' by the serfs, as it were. It was honestly quite the opposite, in fact…

  What were the chances that they’d just execute her on the spot? Presumably, after defiling her flesh…

  Oh, hah, who was she kidding? Benny knew how these things went!

  A little death wouldn't stop the savages from ravaging her! Even when she was just 'meat' without the spark of life anymore, they’d still be assaulting her person until she got good and cold...

  “Fuck!” she whimpered, breaths coming too quickly for her to manage.

  She felt faint.

  Felt far too overwhelmed...

  This was too much, and no matter how she spun it, the best she could really hope for was a quick death!

  “Benjamine the bloody!” A booming voice called through the door. The young woman spinning on her heel as she winced and whined, recognizing the man on the other side... “It’s time you came out, ss! You’re cornered, much like the vermin you are. Come, at least have some dignity and face your crimes before those you’ve wronged.”

  “What crimes?” she screamed back, fully knowing what the rge adventurer was referring to, or rather, the many things she knew he was referring to, but at this point, she was just stalling for time.

  “Murder of innocents. The practice of dark magic! Stealing loved ones from family and friends alike so you might ske your thirst for bloodshed and torture in your father’s dungeons…”

  “They were all criminals!” she shouted, backing away from the door, even as the metal began glowing with a white-hot luminance, the temperature in the room rising higher than it already was!

  A moment ter, the door was combusting.

  Roaring fire consumed her bastion as though it were hardly a pothole in the road!

  “The only crime that all your victims had in common was running afoul of you, my dy,” Ian Tanner procimed, his rumbling voice arriving with the advent of cheers from those on the other side.

  The licking fmes gave way to the sight of the town’s newly elected lord-mayor as he waited, staring through the burning portal, square-jawed face grim with resolve.

  Shards of bloody ice quickly zipped through the gap, causing the other mage to hiss in pain as he spun away. More and more razors flew through the doorway as Benjamine butchered those who had dared try and trap her.

  Now that she had a little bit of water and wasn't running for her life, she could fight! And if these buffoons thought she was going to be taken so easily, then—

  Thunk!

  Slowly, Benny staggered backward, blinking rapidly as she stared at her stomach and saw the bolt protruding from her guts.

  The pain registered a moment ter, but not before she sneered, sending a shard straight through the crossbowman’s eye and spttering his skull out the other side!

  Sadly, another took his pce, and even though she killed him as well, a third appeared, and this time, before she could stop him, a second bolt lodged itself in her! Punching right through the chest.

  Her breaths became a wheezing, ragged thing as she coughed blood from her plush lips, her essence spttering against the stone as she stumbled, avoiding another bolt by sheer chance as she nearly toppled, twisting as it fshed past her shoulder...

  Desperate and running low on mana, Benjamine blundered her way to her grandfather’s drake, not having much of a better alternative.

  He wasn't kitted for riding, but she’d ridden bareback plenty of times before! There was no reason this couldn't work, no reason she couldn't make do…

  Hacking as her right lung filled with blood, she reached the old beast and desperately tried to get it to move! Tried to push it, to goad the freaking thing into motion.

  And, wondrous sight of sights! The stupid animal actually followed her command!

  Shifting almost as if it could remember the way to the roost's edge, even as its blind head looked to and fro, letting out an outstandingly unimpressive roar like it, too, was ready for one final and daring gambit.

  Another bolt whizzed past her head, and Benjamine cursed as she held out her fingers and returned icy death in kind.

  The bodies piled up outside the door as more and more fell to her magic.

  Then, she screamed!

  A ball of fmes scorched the side of her ribs as it narrowly missed her, searing her flesh and bonding it to her dress, a massive spsh of fire exploding on the wall just to her side!

  Yet, Benny was already ughing!

  She’d made it.

  And as she scrambled onto the side of the old drake, its wings stretching wide, she kicked her bare heels into its fnks, and the trained animal immediately leaped into the sky!

  The glorious rush of air filled her with renewed spirit as more and more bolts passed her by, some nding in her shoulder and hip, others simply flying wide.

  Still, she didn't care.

  She was a blood mage!

  Did they think puncture wounds would stop her?

  Benjamine cackled with mad delight as her grandfather’s drake smashed the air with its wings—

  Only for her guts to suddenly hit her esophagus as, horribly, the old beast’s right-wing snapped under its own weight…

  The creature howled in pain and confusion as it started to fil, both of them tumbling to the ground faster and faster than either had any ability to comprehend!

  Benjamine’s eyes grew wide with the brutal horror of her new reality as she plummeted toward the castle walls below, her gaze having just a singur moment to widen before everything went dark with a final spt.