Page 122 of Crowned By Roses

We stand atop a rolling hill. The decimated land of the Briar stretches out before us, the ruins of Castletree at its center. The smell of blood-soaked earth and briny water fills the air. Corpses litter the ground. Winter and Summer have already joined the fight, and the cavalry of Autumn will not back down.

I grip the reins with one hand and raise the Lance of Valor with the other. Cheers cry out behind me, and all the wild sounds of the Vale rise with us. Screeches from firebirds and frostbirds, yelps from the queen’s winter foxes, even the soft hiss of dire spiders. And all these creatures…allowing Autumn fae to ride upon their backs.

You would be laughing your head off if you saw us now, Billy, I think.

I look to my left. Megaera, a siren once imprisoned in Cryptgarden, rides atop a kelpie, the horse’s body made of moving water. She’d led all the captive animals out of the Below, found the tunnels that led to the deep river network in Autumn, the waterways that connect us to Summer. But she hadn’t returned home. She’d stayed with the animals that had become family to her…as I had a feeling she would.

After my father and I freed Nori, Dom, and the rest of the Emberwood prison camp, the first place we went was Loch Fiadhaich. We found them—Megaera and all the animals Billy had insisted we free from the menagerie. And each one kept the promise I had asked of them.

If the Golden Rose calls for aid, you will answer.

My throat tightens as I look over my shoulder and stare at my army. My family and Megaera’s had freed camp after camp, hunting through the nights and gathering a force to support Rosalina.

The menagerie creatures weren’t the only ones who answered our call. On my right, my father, Padraig, sits atop a massive brown bear. Other soldiers ride elk, deer, wild horses, and giant boars. The Storm Rams may be legend, but all the wild things of Autumn have come to protect their home.

Our weapons are weak, mostly stolen from the goblin guards. But even a shoddy sword is a lethal weapon in my father’s hand.

Up above, a gryphon screeches. Dom and Nori are mounted on its back, their eyes blazing with the same wildfire as my father’s. As mine.

This is for you, Billy.

Today may be the last day for any one of us, for any of my loves fighting. But the thought doesn’t bring me fear as it once did. Today, it gives me hope.

“Evil will not prevail!” I call out. “We fight through every season and every storm. We fight for a day when the stars shine over a world of goodness!” Fire erupts from the tip of the Lance of Valor. “For the Golden Rose!”

We charge in a flurry of wind and leaves, thundering down the hill toward Castletree with a cry that could shake the earth. The earth is soft, soaked from Dayton’s flood.

Ahead of us lies a mass of war machines: giant trebuchets hurling balls of shadow into the air. When the shadows hit the ground, giant pits of nothingness appear.

An ogre roars as he pulls back on the trebuchet. A shadow streaks into the sky, heading straight for Dom and Nori’s gryphon. I channel a torrent of fire through the lance. A blaze streaks up, evaporating the shadow ball in one hit.

But another barrage has already begun, a pit forming right before our charge.

“Left!” I roar, redirecting the cavalry around the chasm.

We need to destroy those war machines, or they’ll cut off our army entirely. But we don’t have ranged weapons capable of bringing one of those down. My heart pounds. The cannons on Dayton’s ships would work, but they’re too far south.

Another guttural roar pierces the air as an ogre draws back the trebuchet straight ahead of us⁠—

A shot from the sky blows the trebuchet into nothing but shards of wood. What? Dayton’s ships are too far away…

The scent of cherry blossoms wafts by, and a great shadow passes over me.

I look up.

Airships. An entire fleet of them.

And at the helm of the flagship stands the High Prince of Spring.

Ezryn

“Even with our ships, this is a lost cause.” Kairyn looks over the railing of Flutterwing. “Sira outnumbers us five to one.”

I walk to the bow and peer down at what’s left of Castletree. “We can work with those odds.” I flash my brother a smile he won’t see but can feel. “Because we have her.”

Kairyn stares at me, silent for a moment, before he nods and marches to the helm, determination in his steps.