Oakhaven, the big city, lay under the late afternoon sun, a mix of grey and bright gold. From the top of the Valerius Company building, the world looked like a huge, dangerous game of chess. Its pieces were like weak glass, and the prize was human lives.
Lyra Valerius looked at the view from the large window. Below, the endless stream of cars moved like a dark river. A faint, silver shimmer from the banquet's energy still stained the sky. It was a clear reminder of the night her old life was destroyed, creating a new, stronger reality.
She was no longer the simple girl who hid in the kitchen to avoid her brothers' teasing. Now, she wore a fitted charcoal silk suit and carried the huge weight of the Valerius Group. The meeting room behind her was completely quiet. The twelve leaders of the smaller groups had left an hour ago. Their signatures were on the necessary contracts.
Lord Kaelen was the last to leave. His look was a confusing mix of respect and hate that made her skin crawl. She knew their loyalty was not to her. Their loyalty belonged to the black coin on the table and the ghostly leader who owned it.
"How long until he comes back?" Lyra asked, still facing the window.
Thorne stood silently in the dark shadows near the exit. He had taken off his mask, but his face was still a firm wall of scars and strict self control. He carefully sharpened a small throwing knife with a piece of silk cloth.
"The Commander is crossing the Great Dividing Range now," Thorne reported. "He ran into strong resistance at the Iron Frost Fortress, but the mission was a success. He has taken back the second piece."
"The second piece," Lyra whispered, her fingers touching the Frost Jade at her neck. It felt cold against her skin, but she felt a faint, steady beat coming from inside the stone, like a living pulse. "He is tearing the world apart for just some old bone relics. Does he care about the disaster that will follow?"
"The Commander only cares about the result," Thorne replied, putting the knife in his pocket. "The High Regents have ruled through thousands of years of cruelty and theft. They built their kingdom on the graves of his soldiers. Taking back those pieces is the only way to bring things back into balance. Oakhaven itself is safe only because they are very afraid of him."
"Safe," Lyra said with a joyless laugh. "An assassin was hiding in my room yesterday, Thorne. My father is just a shell of his old self, and my brother is a coward who prays to a god he doesnt understand. We are not safe. We are just the bait in a giant trap."
Thorne did not argue. He knew she was right. His whole life had been spent under the Commander's shadow, and he knew that safety was a brief dream for those near a Ruler's light. He started to answer, then suddenly stopped, tilting his head as if listening to a sound no one else could hear.
"What is wrong?" Lyra demanded, chilled by a sudden breeze.
"The team at the estate is not responding," Thorne stated, his voice turning into a rough, metallic sound. "The border sensors were turned off at the same time."
Lyra felt a hard, painful pounding in her chest. Distant penthouse windows suddenly burst into a bright, strange light. It was not the familiar gold light of Caspian, but a poisonous, sickly green.
"They have arrived," Thorne announced, pulling his earpiece from his jacket. "All units to the Valerius Tower. Start total lockdown. Begin the Sovereign protocols."
He grabbed Lyra's arm and rushed her toward the private elevator. "We must hurry. Now."
"Is it the Regents?" Lyra asked, struggling to keep up with his long steps.
"It is the Executioners," Thorne corrected. "They are Regent Malphas's personal group of hunters. They dont care about the city or its people. Their only goal is the target. And right now, Lyra, you are the only important target."
The elevator doors closed, starting their fast trip down. Lyra watched the floor numbers drop, filled with a deep sense of danger. She thought of Caspian far in the North, wondering if her fear could reach him. She wondered if the link of the Frost Jade was strong enough to cross a thousand miles of purple sky.
High above the clouds, the black jet screamed through the air. Caspian lay back in the rear, his eyes closed, deep in thought, trying to take in General Kael's soul into his core. Gold energy swirled around him in a wild storm, making the aircrafts metal structure groan and twist.
Suddenly, his eyes snapped open. The golden glow in his eyes flared with terrifying intensity.
He felt it. The Frost Jade was sending a signal of pain.
"Thorne," Caspian whispered, but there was no reply. The communication lines were completely blocked by a powerful field of dark energy.
He looked through the window at the distant northern mountains. He was still hours away from Oakhaven. He was too far. The truth hit him with the force of a punch. He had spent three years protecting her from small fights, only to leave her side when the real fire started.
"I am coming for you, Lyra," Caspian said, his voice sounding like the roar of the Ninth Dragon.
He stood up and walked toward the flight deck. The pilot looked at him with pure fear. "Commander. We are already at top speed. The engine systems are under critical stress."
"Then give me the controls," Caspian ordered.
He did not wait for the pilot to obey. He pressed his hands onto the control panel and sent a huge burst of his own energy straight into the jets spirit stone reactors. The engines did not just roar; they shrieked in pain. The black jet became a bright streak of golden fire, tearing through the sound barrier and leaving a trail of broken clouds.
Back in Oakhaven, the Valerius Tower was under attack.
The main hall had been turned into a place of death. The citys security forces had been wiped out by a wave of emerald fire, and the strong doors had melted into waste. Three figures in grey clothes moved through the remaining smoke. They had no faces. Their hoods hid a swirling green mist, and their hands were long and clawed, like a bird of preys talons.
These were the Executioners of the Void. They were not living beings, but creatures of pure evil, completely tied to the High Regents will. They moved with slow, careful steps, and each footstep caused the floor to crack and harden.
"Where is the girl?" one of them hissed, the voice an unnatural copy of a thousand snakes.
Thorne was waiting for them at the entrance to the underground safe. He had taken off his suit, returning to his armor of white and gold, and held two curved black swords. Behind him, Lyra was crouched in the command centers corner, watching the security screens with wide eyes.
"You will not get in," Thorne declared, his voice a metallic crash. "The Sovereign's Shadow does not surrender to the Voids trash."
The Executioners said nothing. They simply raised their hands, and the hallway was instantly filled with a flood of emerald fire.
Thorne moved with incredible speed, a blur of pure light. He spun his swords into a spinning defense, batting away the flames with a series of sharp, loud hits. He charged forward, cutting at the first Executioner with a straight swing that should have cut the thing in half. However, the blade passed through the green mist as if it were just air.
The Executioner let out a chilling laugh and struck Thorne in the chest with a clawed hand. The armor held, but the sheer power of the hit threw Thorne violently backward against the command centers steel doors.
Lyra cried out as she saw Thorne fall. She looked at the screens, seeing more Executioners entering the building from the roof. They were everywhere. The Valerius Tower was quickly becoming a tomb.
She reached for the black coin on the table, clutching it tightly. "Caspian," she whispered. "Please."
A thousand miles away, Caspian felt the strong plea. He felt the cold, total embrace of the void closing in on her. He stared at the horizon, where the light of Oakhaven was just starting to appear. He was still too far away.
He looked at the bone fragment in his hand. General Kael's relic was shaking, glowing with a fierce, protective energy.
"Use it," Caspian whispered to his generals spirit. "One last time, Kael. Protect her."
He crushed the bone in his palm, releasing the generals entire spirit into the jet. The aircraft did not just speed up; it went beyond. It became a ripple in the space, completely vanishing from the sky.
In the command center, the Executioners were forcing apart the steel doors. Thorne had gotten back up, blood dripping from a wound on his shoulder, but he refused to leave his post. He was a fortress of gold against an unstoppable wave of green.
"Step aside, small shadow," the lead Executioner hissed. "The girl is the Regents property. We will take her soul to forever control the Commander."
"Only over my dead body," Thorne growled.
"Then so be it."
The three Executioners attacked at once. Their claws shone with the Voids light, ready to kill the last of the strong protectors.
Suddenly, the whole room exploded with a huge force.
The command centers ceiling was violently ripped away as if it were paper. A huge, black object crashed into the floor between Thorne and the Executioners. It was the wreckage of the black jet, still glowing with a leftover golden fire.
The Executioners were thrown back by the colossal force of the crash. They hissed, their green auras flaring as they struggled to see through the thick smoke.
A figure stepped out of the burning wreckage.
He was naked above the waist, his skin covered in soot and blood. His eyes were no longer human, but two deep pools of molten gold that lit up the whole room. In his hand, he held a massive, heavy broadsword, which vibrated with the loud sound of a dragons roar.
"Caspian," Lyra cried, her voice a broken mix of relief and terror.
The Commander did not look at her. His focus was only on the Executioners. The golden light wrapping around him was so strong that the green mist within their hoods began to turn into vapor.
"You crossed into my shadow," Caspian spoke, his voice a rolling thunder that made the towers foundation shake. "You threatened the woman I swore to protect."
He walked forward, and the floor beneath his feet instantly turned to glass.
"For this mistake," Caspian declared. "There will be no forgiveness."
He swung the broadsword straight up. The blade sliced the air with a sound like the world itself being torn apart. A wave of golden energy burst from the steel, destroying the first two Executioners in one single, massive moment. They had no time to scream. They were simply gone.
The lead Executioner tried to melt into the surrounding shadows, but Caspian was faster. He reached out and caught the creatures throat with his bare hand. The golden energy surged into the Executioners form, beginning to burn the void mist from inside.
"Tell this to the Regents," Caspian whispered, tightening his grip. "Tell them that the dragon has returned to his home. And tell them that my time of hiding is over."
He squeezed his fingers, and the Executioner exploded in a blinding burst of bright light.
The silence that followed was absolute. The smoke from the wreckage began to clear, and the distant wail of sirens was the only sound in the city. Caspian stood in the middle of the rooms destruction, his chest heaving. The golden light in his eyes slowly began to fade, and he looked down at his shaking hands.
He had used too much power. The process of taking in the second fragment had been stopped too soon, and his core screamed in terrible pain. He felt the start of darkness closing in at the edge of his vision.
"Thorne," Caspian managed, his voice a weak breath. "Secure the city. The Regents will not stop."
He turned to face Lyra. She stood by the stone surface, looking at him with a strange expression. She saw the blood, the wounds, and the man who had fallen from the sky to save her.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
Lyra did not answer. She walked toward him, looking at the jets wreckage and the command centers ruins. She looked at the man who had single handedly turned her life into a long war.
"You came back," she said quietly.
"I always come back," he replied.
He felt his legs give out, and he began to fall. Lyra caught him before he hit the ground. She held him tightly, feeling the heat of his skin and the fast beat of his heart. She looked up through the hole in the ceiling, toward the countless stars of the Oakhaven night.
The fight was no longer far away in the North. It was here. It was in her house. It was in her arms.
Lyra looked at Thorne, who stood over them, his swords still drawn. "Will he live?"
"He is a Sovereign," Thorne replied, his eyes fixed on the horizon where the first signs of morning were appearing. "He will survive. However, the world we once knew is gone, Lyra. From this day forward, there is only the shadow and the fire."
As the sun rose over the broken tower, a single black bird watched from a nearby rooftop. It did not disappear into smoke this time. It let out a sharp, mocking cry before flying toward the West. The High Regents had lost their Executioners, but they had gained a piece of information they had wanted for a thousand years.
The Commander was weak. His core was failing. And the woman was the key to his defeat.
The pieces were lined up, and the game was on. The next move would decide the fate of Oakhaven and the very soul of the Ninth Dragon.
Caspian lay wrapped in Lyra's arms, feeling the cool morning air. He knew the Regents would come back soon. He knew the war was only beginning. Yet, as he looked up at the silver haired woman who supported him, he felt a strange and quiet comfort.