Chapter One-Hundred & One

CONTENT ADVISORY / TRIGGER WARNING

THIS NOVEL CONTAINS DEPICTIONS/STRONG IMPLICATIONS OF THE FOLLOWING THAT SOME READERS MAY FIND OFFENSIVE OR DISTURBING:

~ BLOOD AND VIOLENCE

Libelle rested against the wall of the stable, staring at the tree line where she could hear thundering hooves galloping in her direction. The manor was nearly a pile of ash now with only a few thick beams standing erect and a few patches of cobblestone framing the edges of the home. All of her belongings had burned in the flames, so she practically had nothing left to her name.

She heard voices shouting, "Search everywhere!" and "Look for the dragon slayer!" Several men came running around the burning rubble and stumbled upon Gaalin's halved corpse with surprise and disgust.

"Isn't that dark elf the dragon slayer's servant?"

"I think so, what could have happened here?"

Libelle pushed herself to her feet and stumbled out of the stables towards the men. Her appearance surprised them and they aimed their crossbows at her.

"Stop where you are, woman!" they barked at her.

She sighed; she was too tired for this. Standing where she was, she raised her arms up to them. "My name is Libelle, and I'm the lord to this manor."

The men looked about one another. "You lie, wench! This stead belongs to the dragon slayer, ally of Edinburgh."

She rolled her eyes at them. "I have information about the murder in Edinburgh of the young girl."

One of the guards walked up to her, his long stride covering a lot of ground in a short time. He stopped in front of her and gave her a suspicious glare.

"Who are you really?" he asked.

"Libelle. I am the slayer." She snorted when they called her a liar.

"Lies! The dragon slayer is a man! He stands nearly seven feet tall and is as strong as an ox!"

"You've never met the slayer, have you? This manor is my home, and that corpse there belonged to my retainer, Gaalin."

They all looked at his mutilated body.

"What happened here?" the guard closest to her asked.

"That man there is the one responsible for Ingrid's death. When confronted, he lashed out and brutally beat the man I've been keeping under the king's and priests' order. Gaalin tried to kill him, and then he tried to harm me. He was slain in self-defense."

The men looked over the land; there was a home burned to ash, a corpse split in two and large prints in the ground. Her story just didn't sound believable. One of the other guards approached her.

"Why should we believe you, wench? What's to say you didn't kill him and burn down the house yourself?"

Her icy eyes turned cold. "I gladly would have taken that bastard's life, but sadly, that trophy wasn't mind to take."

They murmured with one another and the guard standing by her side spoke again. "There is nothing we can do here. You'll come with us to Edinburgh. There you can prove if your story is true."

He tried to grab her arm when another guard approached with shackles. "How is it I am supposed to prove my innocence?" she asked.

The man chuckled. "Well, if you're the mighty slayer, it won't be too hard." He reached for her arm again, and when she jerked away he cursed at her. His fist flew straight for her face, and she was too exhausted to evade it.

Her head lurched back and blood spilled from her nose. She hissed, "Bastard!"

The men didn't believe she was the slayer; their own fantasies about a fictional character clouded their judgement. For once, she actually regretted never revealing her true identity to the world. Two of the guards pounced on her and pinned her to the ground. They smirked down at her as one guard spoke.

"She's a pretty one, we could have some fun before heading back." His dirt covered hand rubbed her calf and stroked upwards towards her inner thigh.

"She looks like she would put up quite a struggle," another smirked. "Hold her down."

Three men pinned her down in the mud and her fears came rushing out of her like a hurricane. She snarled as she tried to pull away, but her strength faltered. The men laughed at her, watching her struggle as they debated who should go first. The guard who had stood closest to her turned and smiled at her, unlatching his belt as he approached.

Libelle's lip curled over her teeth. She took a deep breath, focused her magic into her palms and hurled a ball of fire at the men. The force of her attack sent the men sailing through the air, landing several feet away from her. The guard holding her hands above her wrists paled when she glared at him. He immediately released her and she stood up, running as fast as she could away from the scene.

"After her!" one yelled.

"You imbecile, that's the dragon slayer!"

"Exactly! And if word gets out that we tried to fuck her, whose heads will be on the block?"

They all realized the same thing and took off after Libelle. She was running through the trees as fast as she could, her legs throbbing as her magic had only relieved enough pain so she was able to walk. She looked up to the skies, knowing her mind could reach Eskil, but also knowing there was no way he could reach her in time to save her from these men.

An arrow flew by her head, nearly taking her ear with it as it passed. She spun around and saw the guards chasing her, their weapons drawn with the intention to kill her. Discard the evidence versus admitting your own mistake. Lovely, she thought. More arrows were notched in the bows, and the men released them into the air.

She tried to run faster to evade them, but it wasn't as successful as she thought it would have been. One arrow pierced her shoulder and with the pain, she heard Eskil's roar in her mind.

"Beloved, where are you?" he asked.

Running. The guards didn't believe me, they want to pin me as a murder suspect.

"Run! I'm coming back for you."

She listened. She knew stopping would mean death, but how was he going to reach her in time? Her muscles were already fatigued and she wanted to collapse. There was only one thing she could think of; if her body was going fail her, she wouldn't let her voice do the same.

She screamed as an arrowhead ripped through the back of her calf and she collapsed to the ground. She had to take action. Now. Her ancient companions were the only thing that could save her, and she knew if she called out to them, they would answer. She shielded herself with her magic to grant herself a few moments of safety from the guards' attacks.

"Theron! Berodach! Aid me in my time of need!"

Their presence flooded hers, and the sensation of their minds meeting hers struck her like a boulder rolling down a mountainside. "Dragon slayer, you called for us?" Berodach asked.

"I need your help!"

She knew it would sound strange to anyone who didn't know her scaled friends, but Berodach was almost as old as Vegeir and Eskil, a unique individual who had the ability to travel through time and space. The immortal creature could bend the world at will and shift to new locations; a gift granted by the gods' favor.

Libelle's energy felt sapped and she wanted to succumb to the feeling of exhaustion, the feeling that she was about to lose consciousness. However, she forced herself to stand up and back away as thick, pungent white clouds of energy swirled around in front of her.

Berodach's body formed with his earthy colored scales glistening.

"Libelle," he said in a throaty voice. "Why have you called for me?"

Libelle gritted her teeth while she ripped the arrow from her leg. "I need your help. Stop them."

His green-scaled body turned towards the advancing guards and he chuckled. The guards froze for a moment, unsure of what to do, but then they screamed and charged forward. Berodach roared in response to their screams, and with his roar, a blaze of flame burst from his mouth and engulfed the soil in front of him.

"Go slayer, I will hold them off for you," he growled. "Theron is on his way, the skies guide him."

Libelle nodded as she fled the battle she would typically dive into. She ran north to the sharp cliffs that led to a straight fall to the lake hundreds of feet below it. She cried out again when an arrow embedded itself in her lower back, and glancing over her shoulder she saw that one of the guards had mounted a horse and was galloping after her while Berodach chased after him. She only had a little bit further to run. She could see the light of the forest's edge, and she just had to reach the other side of the trees.

The guard passed her on his horse and cracked his sheathed sword over her back. She tripped and stumbled forward but kept on running. He cursed at his failure, slowed his horse to turn back around and charged towards her again. She crashed through the tree line and skidded to a halt at the edge of the cliffs. Her bare feet tickled the edge of the sharp rocks as small pebbles fell over the ledge. She stood rooted to the spot.

The guard burst through the trees after her, stopped his horse and smirked at her as he dismounted. He drew his sword and walked up to her slowly, almost as if he were approaching a wild animal.

"You put up quite the fight, lass," he snickered. "But I can't have you spouting off nonsense to the king, can I?"

Libelle had nowhere to go. To her back was the edge of the cliff, and to her front was a bastard with a sword, but in the distance...was a dragon's roar. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Holding it in, the moment felt like an eternity. Libelle leapt backwards into the air and fell through the sky towards most certain death. The guard stared down at her in disbelief, shouting out unintelligible curses as she fell.