Fiona nimbly disarmed the soldier, holding the blade at his neck as he admitted defeat. She turned to her mother who applauded.

"Well done. You have learned well."

"Thank you, Mother," Fiona said, still nervous under the queen’s normally absent attention.

"I feel confident you'll do well in the upcoming battle."

"Battle?" Fiona felt cold, she'd never fought anyone for real.

Lyra laughed lightly making Fiona feel like a foolish child for asking. "We're passing through the Devilstone Pass, so..." she prompted and Fiona tried to remember her geography.

"So, the tip of mountains? Just west of the Aziron border."

"Former Aziron border," her mother corrected, "the fighting will mostly be east of us but we'll play our part on the way to Southport before the march on Aziron truly begins."

Fiona nodded, not sure how she felt about Aziron. Matius had cried when the news of the Azir Queen's assassination had arrived. He'd left for days to help with the fighting. A horrifying thought came to her, what if he was in the battle too, on the other side?

She turned to ask her mother but Lyra had moved on. A surly guard with a thick scar on his chin stepped up, shuffling Fiona off the training ground. He'd been assigned as her personal guard since Vai...

The guard was quiet and grumpy and left Fiona to her own devices generally. He helped keep her out of trouble and away from dangerous parts of the camp. Many curious people tried to get a good look at the mysterious returned princess but her guard saw them off with just a glance. He reminded her a bit of...

It was weird to have people bowing to her and opening acknowledging her title. Fiona spent her meals either alone or quietly with her mother. Anytime someone approached, they'd bow and acknowledge her before turning to give the latest news to the queen.

Everyone obeyed her mother without question so Fiona did the same. She twisted her sword, the weapon moving fluidly and naturally and she tried to quench any fear at the thought of actually using the weapon.

As the small army marched through Mothwing Woods, almost no one approached them. Fiona rode up by her mother trying to get a sense of what to expect. Southport was originally an Azir port, but was currently heavily occupied by the Valhym eastern navy, which itself was largely made up of Aryi ships.

Any attacks on the queen's group were expected at Devilstone Pass...or Invader's Pass as Matius had called it one of the days he'd helped her with her geography.

As they drew closer to the mountains, the troops were edgy and there was less talk as eyes were trained towards any potential ambush. The queen pulled her horse up to one of her commanders, issued some orders, and some of the men split off.

"Fiona, come here," the queen said sharply and Fiona kicked her horse, riding up alongside her mother.

"Stay close to Corvin, understand."

Fiona nodded, turning to glance at the weaselly man a few paces behind. He was slight and robed, clearly a mage.

He looked miserable but at his name, he looked up and the queen addressed him, "Keep her warded, I didn't come all this way to have her blown apart by a blueskin. And try to manage the fire this time or I'll leave you behind to hold the line in Southport."

Corvin went pale but nodded. Fiona gripped the reigns tightly as the huge rock walls of the pass rose around her. It was stiflingly quiet and then Crack! a flash of light blinded Fiona and her horse veered to the side. Everything suddenly burst into sound as men charged and screamed.

Fiona looked up and saw her mother's men firing arrows into the stone and, seeming out of nowhere, blue-skinned people appeared only to fall from the stone and into the pass. The world shimmered and Fiona heard Corvin muttering behind her.

She kept her horse moving forward, scanning the line for her mother. The queen was riding expertly through the battle and towards the heat of the ambush. A man with blue skin and black hair tied back with a headband held up a ball of fire. A dagger seemed to sprout from his throat and Fiona gasped as he fell gurgling to the ground. Her mother grinned and wheeled her horse around and Fiona closed her eyes as the hooves trampled the man.

She felt sick and tried to focus on moving forward. This was wrong. The only magic she'd really seen was Matius's. Riding the wind, making tart apples appear, or creating shimmering lights to the delight of small children. Not this.

A scream caught her unwanted attention and she turned to see one of her mother's soldiers burning. His skin blistering and peeling back as the flames pressed in unnaturally. The smell hit Fiona and this time she did vomit off the side of her horse.

Another Azir raised a hand and a figure of stone broke from the mountainside. A huge Valhym man with a warhammer charged it, shattering it to pebbles before swinging at the summoner who, in shock, took the blow to the head. He fell into the side of the stone, more stain than corpse.

Some of the Azir had weapons and they lit with fire, crackled with lightning, or smoked with ice as they fought against the queen's forces. One ran towards Fiona, a hand raised from which lightning snaked. It bolted from rider to rider and Fiona gasped as some of it arced into her. Her vision went white for a moment and then she was falling, her horse dead beneath her.

With instinct she jumped and rolled to her feet. The Azir raised a hand again and without thinking, Fiona darted forward, her sword cutting into his arm until she could feel bone. He screamed and turned his dark eyes to her and flames licked her feet but they were held off by whatever magic Corvin had surrounded her with.

His useless arm pulsing with bursts of blood, the Azir raised another hand and groaned a spell. Again the rock at their feet seemed to ripple and a form emerged. Fiona felt cold as she imagined its solid stone limbs crushing her.

She ran to the side and as it swung its arms, feinted, and danced to its left. Rolling again under its next swing, she came up at the mage, sword digging into his stomach.

Fiona was so close she heard his last breath before his body slumped onto her. She nearly let go of her sword but years of training made her hold on with a death grip and as she stepped back, it tore free. Her arm dripped with blood and she stared at the body, her stomach heaving again.

There was the sound of hooves and Fiona jumped to the side, back against the stone wall as a horse reared in front of her. It was her burly guard, reaching out a hand which she numbly took. He swung her up behind him and they galloped forward into the quickly ending battle.

Fiona held onto the guard with one arm, the other still clenching her crimson sword. The rest of the battle was over in minutes. They found her mother and rode up next to her. The queen had a wicked grin on her face as she scanned over the battlefield.

"Ten mages, and not half-bad ones either. Still, they must not have known it was us or they'd have had more. Hickory must be doing his job," she said to another man, his helmet plumed.

The commander nodded and Lyra's green eyes looked past him and locked on her daughter. "What happened to your horse?"

Fiona's mouth was dry, but as her mother's eyes narrowed she managed to spit out. "Lightning.""

The queen looked annoyed and shouted, "Where's Corvin?"

"H-here my queen." The man approached. He was on foot, half of his face coated with blood, and looked ready to drop to the floor.

"Still alive? Good, guess you aren’t totally useless. Someone get him a horse, we don't stop until Southport."

Fiona stayed with her guard and they galloped for hours, the stone pass breaking into green hills until they met a river and followed it to Southport.