We ran to the gates, hurriedly strapping our weapons on, apologizing as we ran through crowds of people.

  “Why do they call you the Emerald Witch?” Serenity asked, looking at the people we passed.

  “Emerald Witch?”

  “Yeah, that’s what they’re calling you when you run past.”

  “Oh, probably because of my hair.” I shrugged, catching myself as I tripped on a loose stone in the road.

  “I think it’s cool,” she shrugged.

  “If you can talk, you can run faster.” Kaine said, glancing over his shoulder at us.

  Serenity rolled her eyes and picked up her pace, keeping up with Kaine. After we ran through a particularly crowded street, I ended up separated from them both, so I ran to the right and down an alley. I ran to the end and jumped, climbing onto a low awning as I scaled the side of the building, up to the roof. I ran across, jumped to the next roof and looked down, scanning the crowd, looking for Kaine and Serenity. I spotted his silver armor glinting in the sun so I took off again, jumping from roof to roof, following them from above.

  Serenity glanced behind and realized I was missing, but Kaine motioned for her to keep going and pointed up to where I was, running parallel to them both.

  After I made it to the wall, I dropped down onto a low roof before dropping down again into the road, meeting up with them.

  “Too good to run in the streets with us, huh?” Serenity laughed.

  “I got split from y’all and the road was super uneven, so I caught back up.” I shrugged, ducking between the knights guarding the gate entrance, Serenity and Kaine following me.

  “Oh gods…” Serenity breathed, looking out at the carnage in front of us. The bridge crossing the river was charred, the field burning, and bodies of humans, wyverns, pegasi, and horses alike littering the ground.

  “That’s… that’s not a chimera, is it?” I squinted, horrified at the beastly monstrosity just over the bridge.

  “I think it is.” Serenity said, her face pale. “It’s huge, which means…”

  “It’s been around a long time… how have we not seen it before now? I know Deepwood is huge, but something like that wouldn’t stay hidden for long…”

  “I don’t know and I frankly don’t care. I need you both to do your thing. What can you tell us of it?” Kaine asked, shoving us down as a fireball hit the top of the palace wall from the dragon head.

  “Well… it’s a dragon, a…” I squinted, trying to see the other two heads.

  “A dragon, a cat of some kind, and a… human…” Serenity shuddered, knocking an arrow.

  “The body of a lion and a snake tail.” I said, watching it whip its tail around, poison spewing from its jaws, melting everything it touched. “How do we even get close to that thing?”

  “We’re not.” Kaine said, looking wildly around. “Ah, there he is. Silvo!” Kaine bellowed, raising an arm above his head.

  Silvo came running up the bridge, his tome in his hands. “There you are.”

  “Did you remember to bring it?” Kaine asked, unsheathing his sword and stepping around Silvo.

  “I did, but it wasn’t easy. You owe me.” Silvo glowered at me, passing me my tome.

  “Thank you.” I said, happy to have my tome back in my hands, at least for now. He’d probably take it back once the chimera was taken down.

  “Wait… didn’t you say there were two beasts?” Serenity said, loosing an arrow at the chimera.

  “There are.” Silvo said, pointing to our left. There, just over the hill, its many heads snapping their jaws in different directions, was a hydra. Several heads were already charred stumps, but there were hundreds more still left to contend with. “As you can see, we need your help,” he said with great difficulty.

  “I wonder if Shalana would-”

  “No,” Serenity snapped. “We can handle this. I’ve been on enough hunts with her, we can figure something out.”

  “You’re right.” I said, opening my tome, suddenly wishing I had my bow with me. There was no way we’d be able to get close enough with the snake tail whipping around and the heads snapping. The dragon would see any movement from miles away. Struck with a sudden thought, I flipped to the page with my pencil and grabbed it before drawing a summoning gate in my tome before placing it on the ground.

  “What are you planning?” Serenity asked, her bow twanging.

  “I have a bow I need to get.” I placed my hands on the circular gate, picturing my bow exactly where I left it, asking the tree to allow me past the wards. They let me in without a fight, digging the bow out of the floor for me, and sent it through the gate in front of me. I reached down and grabbed it, pulling it out of the book, the metal settling comfortably in my hand.

  “A bow made of metal? Does that thing even shoot?” Serenity asked, knocking another arrow.

  “It does, there’s gears in the top and bottom that-”

  “Is that an artificer’s bow?” Kaine asked, looking at it with curiosity.

  “I mean… not really, I just put runes on it to help me be able to use it more effectively.”

  “Okay, okay, we’ll talk about it later, there’s a chimera and hydra still.” Kaine shook his head before whistling.

  “What are you going to do?” Serenity asked.

  “Whatever you need me to do.” Kaine said, watching as a winged lion came soaring over the bridge, landing in front of Kaine with a snarl.

  “This is Max,” Kaine said, climbing onto his back. Max purred as Kaine scratched his ears.

  “Hi Max.” I reached up to pet his nose, but jerked my hand back when he snapped his jaws at me.

  “Yeah, he doesn’t like anybody, don’t feel bad.” Kaine shrugged. “Now, anyway, you said it was a chimera?”

  “Yeah, they’ve been popping up more and more recently in Deepwood.” Serenity said, knocking another arrow. “Shalana, my older sister, has been hunting them like crazy, but they just keep popping up. They’re not born, they’re made by someone as far as she can tell, she’s just not been able to figure out who it is that’s creating them.”

  “She mentioned something about finding empty caves that look like they’ve been abandoned years ago, so maybe their creations just hadn’t… come to life until now?” I shrugged, drawing my bowstring back, waiting for the arrows to appear.

  “Okay, that’s not fair,” Serenity scoffed. “I need one of those.”

  “Magic is still banned, so until it isn’t, I can’t make your bow like mine, sorry,” I shrugged. “Although, if my idea works, I can let you borrow it once I make an opening for us to move in.”

  “Okay, I guess I can live with that for now.” She smirked, knocking another arrow. “What is your plan?”

  “Hit it with everything I’ve got and hope I kill it in one go?” I shrugged, straining to pull the bowstring back even further.

  “How long is it going to take?” Kaine asked, Max shuffling nervously under him as the wall of magic arrows kept growing around us.

  “I can let it go at any point.”

  “Hold it until I tell the captains to fall back,” Kaine said, as Max bounded forward, unfurling his wings to take off.

  “Got it!” I nodded, squinting to focus on nothing but the chimera in front of me. I could take out the tail, allowing room for the knights to move in to target the heads, but the dragon head worried me the most. Wounded knights were being brought up the bridge from the battlefield, some muttering incoherently. “Serenity, what are they saying?” I asked.

  “Uh…” She paused, listening. “Something about the human head… singing of lost dreams? Uh…” I heard her shift, walking closer to the knights. “Something else… things they’ve lost? Dreams they still have? Whatever it is, it’s distracting them too much from the fight to defend themselves.”

  “I’ve never heard of anything humanoid doing that… I know dragons have that capability, but this dragon isn’t singing.” I squinted in the sudden bright sunlight, waiting for Kaine. My arms were beginning to burn under the strain of the bow, but I held on, pouring as much mana into my bow as I could.

  “I can’t say I’ve heard of anything doing that either, unless it’s a dark fae? One of the Dreamspinners?”

  “Possibly, we won’t know until we get closer.” I shifted, the muscles in my arms beginning to scream at me. I watched as Kaine and Max flew closer, landing at the end of the bridge. The other knights were making their way away from the chimera, a lone knight on a wyvern keeping the attention on them.

  “Riv!” Kaine bellowed. “Whenever you're ready!”

  I watched the movements of the chimera, directing the mana in the arrows to aim for the eyes and neck of each head, praying to whatever gods were left in the world that this worked. I released the bowstring and watched as thousands of arrows shot toward the chimera, each one humming with pure magic energy.

  “Riv, can I just say, I’m glad you’re on our side?” Serenity whispered, leaning closer to me as we watched the arrows explode on impact, hitting their marks. The chimera stumbled, thrashing angrily, the snake tail going limp.

  The wyvern rider flew away from it, towards us like a bat out of Hell.

  “At least the tail is taken out, I think?” I said, squinting at it, watching as the dragon roared, spewing flames about. The cat yowled so horribly we heard it from where we were.

  They wyvern landed, its rider jumping from its back, running to us.

  “Sam?” I called as he got closer.

  Sure enough, I was met with his toothy grin as he pulled his hood back. “Hey Ribbit!” He said, picking me up in a big hug. “Nice shooting, both of you!” He ruffled Serenity’s hair, earning him a scowl. “It’s been a while Serenity, how’ve you been?”

  “Just fine without Shalana,” she looked away from him. “What are you doing out here? I thought you were at the forge?”

  “She’d be really proud of you, y’know,” he nudged her with his elbow before turning back around to watch the Chimera. “Those of us that could fight were sent out here. It’s not looking good.”

  “I think all we did was make it angry,” I grimaced, watching as the dragon roared in anger, flames spewing everywhere.

  “Knights, move out!” One of the squad captains bellowed, charging toward the chimera on horseback.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  “Riv, go with,” Kaine said as Max took off, flying away before I could respond.

  I looked around for a stray mount I could borrow, but all I saw were a few horses and I’d never ridden one before.

  “Go Riv, they’re leaving you behind,” Serenity said, taking aim at the chimera again.

  I gave up looking for a mount and grabbed my tome as I summoned my dragonfly fairy wings and took off, waving to Serenity and Sam as I left. I caught up to the back of the group and stayed there, watching to see what the next move was. I knew I was technically a part of the army, but it just didn’t feel like it yet. Maybe once the ceremony happened in two months and I was officially part of the army, it’d feel more like it. It also didn’t help that I wasn’t going through the same training regiment everyone else was.

  “Hey, you’re Rivienne, right?” one of the knights just in front of me on a pegasus pulled back, flying parallel to me.

  “Yes.” I saluted, yelling to be heard over the wind, causing myself to wobble a bit.

  “I’m Anna and this is Kulta,” she motioned to her pegasus.

  “Nice to meet you both,” I waved, Kulta whinnying.

  “Aww, she likes you.” Anna reached forward and patted Kulta on the neck. “Anyway, that was some really cool magic you used. Makes me wish these dumbasses in charge would let us use it again. I’m a light mage, just dont tell anyone,” she winked.

  “Light magic? That’s so cool!” I gaped at her. “I’ve never seen light magic in use by anyone except the fae.” We stopped, hovering over the chimera as we watched for a signal to attack, the knights on the ground circling around the chimera.

  “You’ve met the fae? That’s amazing, please please please please please let me meet one sometime!”

  “I can’t make any promises, but I have a couple of friends who love meeting humans.” I grinned at her enthusiastic cheer. “Though, I’m surprised you’re talking about magic, I mean, the astral mages-”

  “Fuck the astral mages! Their stupid law will be short-lived anyway. Word is, Queen Elincia asked you and Serenity to help today to prove to them that we need magic.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah. Something about needing magic to fight magic, and their magic isn’t enough,” she laughed maniacally. “We all know it. They call us the King’s Cowards, but they’re more cowardly than we are. We’re out here risking our necks and where are they? Holed up in their ugly stone jungle gym. It’s only been months since magic was outlawed by them and all they’ve done was disappear.”

  “There’s a few mages in the army though, aren’t there?”

  “That’s the problem. There’s supposed to be at least one of their mages per squad, but look around. Not a single mage in sight except for you and whoever those two are over there,” she nodded to two mages healing some of the knights who weren’t hurt enough to be sent back to the palace. “Can you use your bow again?” Anna asked, motioning for me to sit behind her on Kulta.

  I flew over and sat as gingerly as I could, not wanting to hurt Kulta. “I can, but it wouldn’t be anything like it was before. That uses a ton of mana unfortunately,” I shook my head. “I might be able to manage a few more arrows, but I still haven’t fully regenerated all my mana yet.”

  “Okay, I was wondering, if Kulta flies us around up here, would you be able to shoot it?”

  “Yes,” I nodded, leaning over so I could squint at the chimera, still thrashing dangerously about. It looked really small from this high up, but I knew it was anything but. I tilted the bow up, aiming at the sky above us, pulling the bowstring down as I pictured the chimera. I closed my eyes, blocking out the rising sun and released the bowstring after a few arrows had popped up. The arrows went straight up before turning and dropping towards the chimera, hitting their marks. I hadn’t thought of any specific points that time, just wanted to hit the thing.

  “Why are there no other archers?” I asked, looking around.

  “They were all taken out first. Apparently that cat head has some kind of long-ranged attack, I wasn’t here yet so I didn’t see. They hydra took out a huge number of the knights.”

  “When did the initial attack happen?” I asked, shooting a few more arrows.

  “Sometime early in the morning. You should be able to see the path the things took through Deepwood.” Anna pointed. Sure enough, there was a winding path of flattened trees through Deepwood, deep gouges in the earth from claws.

  “It took out a lot of merchants and their mercenaries before the hunters could get to them, and then they were taken out too. Our Guard Captains did nothing until it was too late as usual.”

  Another knight flew closer to us, shouting over the winds, “Rivienne, if you have a plan, Kaine has asked that you put it in motion.”

  “Why me?” I asked, in utter confusion.

  “The only knights left are fresh recruits. Your loyalty is appreciated.” He saluted, flying away again.

  “It’s worse than I thought, then.” Anna shook her head.

  “Are you new too?”

  “No, well, this is my second year as a knight. I’m just… not very good without my magic,” she sighed.

  “Same here,” I snorted. “I spent too much time practicing magic when I should’ve been practicing with my rapier.”

  “So, do you have a plan?”

  “I might… Can you bring me lower, right over the top of the chimera?” I grabbed onto Anna when Kulta dropped suddenly, dodging fire from the dragon’s head.

  “Yeah, what are you going to do?”

  “Jump.”

  “What?” She glanced over her shoulder at me.

  “I’m serious. Just fly us low, right over it, and I’ll take care of the rest.”

  “Okay,” she said skeptically as Kulta started a downward spiral. “It’s your funeral.”

  “It’ll be okay.” I started to unsheathe my rapier before I thought better of it and instead, opened my tome and pulled out a battle axe Torgrud designed for me.

  “Woah!” Anna ducked as I held it to the side and slowly put my feet under me to crouch, holding onto Anna.

  “Sorry, I just-”

  “No, no, don’t worry about me. Do you need me to move?” Anna shifted in her saddle.

  “No, you’re fine right there.” Kulta pulled out of her downward spiral and leveled out, flying straight for the chimera. I cast an invisibility bubble around us, hoping the dragon wouldn’t smell us too soon.

  I jumped, just before Kulta passed over the chimera, and resummoned my wings, using them and the weight of the axe to tip myself forward, falling headfirst towards the chimera. I thanked my dragon friends for teaching me maneuvers I could do from the back of a dragon, even when I thought they were useless at the time. I leveled out and slammed the axe down into the middle of the chimera’s back, its bones crunching under me, and held on tightly as it thrashed violently. The dragon head turned, trying to snap at me while the cat yowled horribly, deafening me until it stopped its caterwaul. I made the mistake of reaching for my rapier when I thought the beast was slowing its thrashing, but it shook hard once, sending me flying.

  I caught myself on a wind current and watched as the knights moved in, attacking the beast as it flailed. Kulta and Anna flew back to me, Anna laughing.

  “That was the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen someone do, but that was awesome!” she laughed.

  “I wasn’t sure what else to do, it’s… moving a lot,” I shrugged. “I don’t have much mana because I still have to wear a stupid bracelet.”

  “I do too, I uh…” she laughed nervously. “I accidentally tried to attack with magic during one of our training exercises a couple weeks ago.”

  “You weren’t arrested?” I gaped at her, wondering once again, what the truth was when it came to who was arrested and who wasn’t.

  “Nope, I was given two options. Join the mages or wear this bracelet,” she shrugged.

  “Me too. Weird.” I muttered, watching the knights attacking the chimera. It was still lashing out at everything it could, snapping a few knights up and tossing them like ragdolls, but it was slowing down.

  “There’s a spot right there, between the human head and the cat’s head. I think if you hit that, it might work. I’d go, but you fly faster than Kulta does.”

  “Fair enough.” I nodded, unsheathing my rapier and launching myself at it, watching the dragon’s head.

  I changed my mind as I watched the dragon’s head rear back, getting ready to spew dragonfire from its jaws. I flew in front of it and flew straight at the dragon’s mouth, plunging my rapier into its maw, my shirt sleeve and arm burning from the heat. I pulled the rapier up on an angle, pulling it through the top of the dragon’s head, watching as the dragon’s fire sputtered out, the light leaving its eyes.I tugged on the blade, trying to pull it out of the bone, but all I managed to do was end up with the dragon’s top razorsharp teeth in my shoulder as the head fell forward, limp in death. I realized I was now holding the weight of the head and neck up.

  I tried to use my other hand to pry the top jaw off of my arm, but it was too heavy. I sighed in frustration at my current predicament, my mana running out from my wings.

  “The power you seek is a small flight away-”

  I glanced at the humanoid head, noticing the fish fins on the side of its head, its song being interrupted by the cat’s piercing yowl. I flinched as it screeched louder and I made the mistake of trying to cover my ears with my free hand and other shoulder. I lost my balance, getting the teeth from the bottom jaw in my armpit.

  I held onto the rapier as the dragon’s head and neck started to droop.

  “Wonderful,” I muttered, my rapier sliding out of the bone, the teeth still lodged in my shoulder shifted, ripping deep gouges into the muscle. I gritted my teeth and curled inwards as the neck shifted, fully expecting it to drop all the way, but it shifted and stopped.

  The humanoid’s head started singing again, but the blood rushing in my ears drowned it out. I grunted as my rapier slid further out. I looked to my left, trying to see if the other knights were doing anything.

  “Riv!” Kaine bellowed as Max came in for a landing. “Good thinking for taking the head out, but don’t do anything that reckless ever again.” Kaine shook his head, plunging his sword through the humanoid’s throat and then the cat’s like it was nothing.

  “It’s more than the rest of you managed to do.” I grunted as I slid further out, grimacing as the teeth dug into my shoulder further.

  “That’s something that will be addressed later today, once we clean up this mess. However, you weren’t here when it and the hydra wiped the rest of the knights out early in the morning,” he retorted. “We have the rest of the knights focusing on the hydra, but it’s looking rather grim over there too. I need you to help with the hydra.”

  “Can I get a little help getting down?” I pleaded.

  “What are you even doing?” He asked, finally noticing my exact predicament.

  I huffed before grunting as the rapier shifted again under my weight. “Not what I meant to do, that’s for sure.”

  “Riv, you okay?” Anna called as Kulta flew to us.

  “Yep, just… hanging out,” I laughed nervously, trying not to think about my arm currently losing circulation. “Though, I’d like to get down… Wait!” I yelled as I felt a shudder run the length of the chimera’s body. “It’s coming down, get out of the way!”

  Max and Kulta moved instantly, getting their riders away from the monstrosity. I curled inward again as the carcass fell forward, the dragon head and I hitting the ground before the rest of the body toppled over. The momentum caused the dragon’s jaw to open and I yanked my rapier out of the bone with my left hand, my right hand all but useless. I slid it out from under the dragon’s neck, away from me, and tried to pry my arm off the bottom set of the dragon’s teeth.

  “You still alive under there?” Kaine called.

  “Yeah!”

  “Damn.” Kaine said with a laugh, pushing the pile of dragon’s neck away and climbing over it to me. “You really did a number, didn’t you.” He gently picked my arm out of the razorsharp teeth, shoving his cape under my arm to stop the bleeding. “Does it hurt?”

  “I can’t exactly feel it, so no.”

  He got behind me and grabbed me under my shoulders, pulling me from under the carcass. Luckily I managed to not get caught under the body of the beast. He pulled me to my feet and wrapped the end of his cape over my shoulder, pulling it tight.

  “As much as I’d like to send you to the healers, we need you to help with the hydra.”

  “You might save some for us next time.” An angry captain called, a short ways from us.

  “Get your asses in gear next time.” Kaine called back.

  “She’s the little prodigy, isn’t she? Least she could do is do some work instead of getting special treatment just because she’s favored by the Queen.”

  “That’s enough, Rinn,” Kaine barked. “Focus on getting your recruits back to the palace.” Kaine turned away, climbing on Max’s back. “You’re no longer needed.”

  Kulta landed and whinnied, touching her nose to my shoulder. She snorted and nudged me.

  “What is it, girl?” I asked, patting her nose.

  “She’s very partial to you for some reason. Doesn’t like that you’re hurt.”

  “I dunno why, animals don’t usually like me at all,” I shrugged.

  “Even with being friends with the fae?”

  “Yep,” I reached my good hand up as Anna held hers out to me and pulled me into the saddle behind her.

  “One critter down, one more to go,” Anna said as Kulta cantered forward as she unfurled her wings before taking off. “Are you gonna be okay with your arm like that?”

  “Yeah, I’ll figure something out,” I said, not having a clue what to do about a hydra. It was even bigger than the chimera was, with a lot more heads. I knew from reading about them on occasion that the heads had to be cut off and then the stump had to be burned before it had a chance to regrow.

  “Wait,” Kaine called, as Max stopped mid-air just over the hill from the hydra. Kulta stopped next to him, far enough away so that her wing didn’t hit his.

  “What is it?” Anna called.

  “They’ve managed to take out a few of the heads with the help of some astral mages, but I don’t see anyone else attacking anymore.”

  “I’m guessing they’re out of mana like me,” I said, looking over the carnage in front of us. Even more bodies littered the ground from the hydra than the chimera, there were a few mounted knights still pressing the attack, but it was a futile endeavor without any fire.

  “Wait!” I frantically looked around at the ground beneath us, looking to see if I could see any sign of Mirrorweed.

  “What?” Anna asked, glancing over her shoulder at me.

  “I need Mirrorweed, I have an idea,” I said loud enough for Kaine to hear me too.

  “What’s your idea?” He asked.

  “I have a few friends in Deepwood who can help. One is a fae who practices fire magic, but I could ask one of them to ask the dragons-”

  “No,” Kaine said abruptly. “It’s a good idea for the current situation, but the king ordered the mages to put up the veil for a reason and if we interfere, there is nothing anyone can do to save your skin this time.”

  “It’s a risk I’m willing to take. I’ll take full responsibility and even if I risk execution for treason, I’ll die happily knowing that I could save the rest of the knights. There’s nothing I can do with the hydra right now and we can’t let it get to the city. The other mages aren’t lifting a finger to help anymore, so unless one of you two can use fire magic, our odds aren’t stacked in our favor.”

  Kaine closed his eyes and exhaled a deep breath before inhaling slowly. “Fine,” his eyes snapped open, looking squarely at me. “Do what you need to.”