Chapter 8
Toy Soldiers
With the gifts of both the phoenix and the serpent, Daphne found she could leap twice as high and twice as far as before. She flew through the air from roof to chimney to roof, no longer jumping like a child playing in puddles but running straight and swift as an arrow, each foot falling on its own roof entire streets apart. In a matter of moments she reached the square at the top of the hill and looked down at the park and the Silver Ash. She heard its leaves sighing in the afternoon breeze.
Before there had been only four soldiers guarding the park gates but now there were dozens, some standing stiffly at attention and others marching in groups and still others leaning against the houses, half-hidden in the shadows. Swords gleamed dully on every hip and muskets clanked on every shoulder.
“Bryn!” Daphne’s voice echoed across the square. Every face turned toward her, every eye fixed on her. The men gasped and muttered, and she heard them whisper about feathers and scales but she ignored them all. She didn’t fear them now. There was no time for fear now. “Bryn!”
The little nymph stepped out from the shadow of the Silver Ash, and she stared up at the gold and crimson figure standing on the roof. “Daphne?”
“The tree is safe now!” Daphne raised her armored hand. “The spirit that was poisoning the Silver Ash is inside me now.”
The soldiers were jogging toward her, forming up ranks in the street below. Many had their muskets in their hands. One of them shouted across the crowd, “She’s stolen another spirit! Stop her, before she destroys the entire city!”
Daphne looked down at them sharply.
How could they possibly think I would destroy the city? After all I’ve done to save them?
A musket barked, its muzzle flashing and a puff of black powder smoke blossoming into the breeze. The musket ball struck Daphne in the shoulder and she stumbled back a step. She looked at her arm and saw nothing, not even a scratch. She looked down at the men again and she felt no fear, no pain. Only anger.
How dare they! I don’t have time for this!
She felt the spirits within her boiling and burning and lashing out at each other again. Serafina was so desperate to reach the tree that Daphne could feel her arms and legs ready to burst into motion once more to reach it. And Ophion was so desperate to stop her that he sat like an anchor in her heart, filling her with despair.
“Get away from me!” Daphne screamed, waving the soldiers off. A whip of fire lashed out from her arm and scorched the roof beside her.
A second musket fired, the ball flying over her head. A third musket fired, also missing her completely. But the fourth musket shot struck her leg. This time she did not stumble. She barely even felt it.
The men were shouting and shooting at her, the spirits were thrashing and roaring at her, and Daphne felt herself being torn apart from all the rage and fear and confusion and desperation swirling around and through her. She stepped forward and dropped off the roof, landing so heavily in the street that the stones broke beneath her feet. The soldiers pressed in around her, shouting and waving their swords and guns. She pressed them back with her armored hands, with fire dancing on her fingertips.
“I have to tell her,” Daphne mumbled. “I did it. I fixed it. Like I promised. I have to tell her. Let me tell her. It’s going to be all right now.”
Her heart was pounding in her chest, shaking and shivering against her breastbone. Her fingers and toes felt cold and weak. The fear and anger inside her shattered like glass, leaving her cold and empty and exhausted. She stumbled forward, her eyes fixed on the giant white tree. It towered over her, but her vision grew hazy and the tree melted into the overcast sky. A man grabbed her and she shoved him away, sending him flying into the crowd. And then a new voice rose over the others, a voice she remembered, a voice she wanted to listen to.
“Daphne? Daphne!”
She turned and saw a new blur, a new face in the crowd.
“Justin?” She staggered toward him, her knees weak and trembling. “Justin?”
“I’m here!” He burst through the crowd and caught her as she fell.
Daphne lay in his arms, staring up at his face all lined with worry and fear. She could barely keep her eyes open. The bright gray of the overcast sky was blinding. Justin’s lips were moving, but she couldn’t hear him. Everything was just a deep roaring noise like the ocean swelling and breaking on the sand.
The world was fading.
She was fading.
She closed her eyes, wishing she could say one last word to her husband, but she couldn’t think of a word to say.
Daphne slept. And sleeping, she dreamed.
Her dream began in darkness, a warm darkness glowing with bright starlight and crawling with deep shadows. Looking around, she saw jagged hills and sharp mountains breaking up through the land, rising tall against the night sky. The world was hard and barren, the earth was dry, and the stones were young and unbroken. As she moved across the land it grew brighter and darker from time to time, and new colors appeared. Blue, then green. First only in faint streaks but then in great swathes and splashes above and below and all around. The world was growing. Voices rose out of the silence, some large and booming and others soft and timid. The creatures of the earth gathered around her, sitting and standing in huge circles like an audience patiently awaiting the beginning of a concert, but Daphne did not know what to say to them. The creatures were like none she had ever seen, small and large, round and sleek, they hunched like liquid shadows in the dark. The animals stared back with wide pale eyes, waiting.
Then one by one the animals stood and trotted away into the distance. They faded from sight, faster now, trotting away in twos and threes, and now running away in whole herds, dashing across the plains to vanish into the hills, leaving her all alone again. With nothing else to do, Daphne moved on, gliding on her scaled belly. She slithered forever with the sun and stars spinning overhead in endless spirals. No new friends came to find her and any new strangers she discovered ran screaming from her. The world grew gray and she found creatures lying still on the ground. Their bones splintered as she crawled over them.
She traveled until she came to a hole in the ground, a lonely place where nothing grew and nothing lived and not even the sun would find her. She crept down into the hole, sliding on her belly, moving deeper and deeper into the earth until the sky was just a memory. In the darkness she crawled, her armored skin impervious to the cold or the heat, sniffing this way and that to find her way in the earth. If ever again she found the light, she did not know it. Never again did her eyes show her any color except black. She crawled on and on, she crawled forever, until she smelled something new. Something alive. Something strong. She crawled up to the thing and felt its rough, crooked roots against her scales and her heart was filled with joy as she sank her fangs into the tap root.
Daphne awoke from the dream and sat up, shivering. Her heart was pattering in her chest, her hands felt cold and clammy, and a fresh wave of fear washed over her as she looked at her surroundings. She was in a cell, a stone cell with iron bars on the window and iron bars across the doorway and beyond those bars she saw four soldiers standing guard. Around her wrists and ankles were iron shackles and between them rattled iron chains.
Deep down in the back of her mind, she could feel the spirits of Serafina and Ophion wrestling with each other, the one bright and wild, the other dark and heavy. But they were merely bickering now, no longer raging and thundering through her, so Daphne ignored them for the moment and tried to think. And then she saw the man sitting on a little stool across from her prison door.
“Justin!”
The man jerked awake, blinking. The four soldiers glanced at her and glanced at him, but did nothing. Justin rushed to the prison door and reached through the bars to take her hand. “Are you all right?”
“For the moment. Where is Violet? Is she all right?”
“She’s fine. She’s with my parents.”
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Daphne closed her eyes and exhaled.
At least my little girl is still safe and sound, and none of this nightmare has touched her at all.
Daphne only hoped that Justin’s mother wouldn’t spoil the little girl with too much sweetmilk. “Why am I in this cell?”
“They didn’t know what else to do,” her husband said. “Some people say you stole the phoenix for its power. Others say you were sent from Kerys to destroy the tree. Everyone is afraid. Everyone is angry.”
Why? Daphne wondered bitterly. None of them have been invaded by two spirit beasts, transformed into a gold and ruby creature covered in feathers and scales, and thrown in a cell!
She rubbed her eyes. “I dreamed of Ophion, the serpent. I saw his life, his endlessly long life, all alone. He is so miserable, so angry at the world, so desperate to escape it. I’ve never felt anything like it before.”
Justin didn’t answer. He squeezed her hand.
She smiled and squeezed his hand back, and said, “Is there news from Kerys?”
“Yes.” Justin looked exhausted, his eyes haunted and lined with worry. “Their army is camped just beyond the eastern river. They will be here soon. By sunrise.”
Daphne glanced up at her barred window and the handful of stars peeking through the angry black clouds. A pale gray streak of dawn glowed softly in the eastern sky. “Very soon now.”
“Yes. We’ve been trying to reinforce the wall all day. It doesn’t do any good. The stones just crack and fall apart.” He sighed and smiled sadly. “I wish I could have seen the phoenix once. They say she was beautiful.”
“She was.” Daphne looked away, suddenly aware of how strange her black scales looked against his warm skin. “I wish you didn’t have to see me like this.”
“Why? You look beautiful. Different and strange, but beautiful. You’re still my Daphne,” he said. “These spirits may have dressed you up in gold and rubies and obsidian, but they didn’t change you, not really. I heard you in the park. They couldn’t change your heart or your spirit.”
Daphne blinked.
My spirit. There are two immortal spirits inside me, but neither one can control me, neither one is stronger than me. I am stronger than them. Stronger than both of them.
She looked up at her young husband and saw the curious look in his eyes. She said, “I can stop them. I can stop the army from Kerys.”
“No.” He shook his head. “They won’t let you out of here. There’s an angry mob outside, and the soldiers are as afraid of the mob as they are of you. They’re not just keeping you in here. They’re keeping them out there.”
Daphne let go of his hand and stood up, her chains clattering and clinking as she moved. “I understand that. But they can’t keep me in here.” She swung her arms up and the chains shattered like glass, the tiny metal rings tinkling against the walls and floor. She gently tore the iron shackles from her wrists and ankles and tossed them aside.
The soldiers gathered around the cell bars beside Justin, all staring at her. One of them said to the others, “What should we do?”
Daphne stepped back toward the barred window. “Don’t do anything. Stay here and keep each other safe. Try to make the people outside go home. And keep everyone inside the city walls. Justin, I love you. I’ll see you again soon.”
And before the men could say a word, she turned around and pushed her way through the prison wall behind her. The heavy stones crumbled beneath her armored fingers and the iron bars bent and buckled like ribbons at her fiery touch. As the chunks of rock and cement clattered on the street outside, she stepped into the cool morning breeze and leapt high into the air.
Dashing across the rooftops, she saw the pale fingers of daybreak creeping into the sky.
The Kerys army will march at sunrise. I don’t have much time.
With the wind whipping through her feathery hair and collar, Daphne felt the two spirits stir and rouse themselves from whatever rest or slumber they took within her. Serafina said, “Where are you going? You’re going the wrong way. The tree is the other way!”
“I’m going beyond the city walls to stop the Kerys army,” Daphne said as she flew across the city.
“No!” the phoenix cried.
“Yes!” the serpent chuckled. “Very good. Rushing out to meet our fate. No time like the present. No reason to waste precious seconds. Fly, little girl, fly!”
She could feel the two spirits beginning to burn and lash out at one another, their voices echoing in her ears, their rage and sorrow and fear threatening to shake her heart to pieces. Daphne made one last leap and came to stand on the eastern wall of the city where she could see far across the plains to the river where the Kerys army was camped.
Serafina and Ophion growled and snarled at one another, hurling the same words over and over.
To the tree!
Stay away!
I want to live!
I want to die!
“Silence!” Daphne screamed. And then softer, “Please.”
And to her surprise, the phoenix and the serpent fell perfectly still and quiet. She could feel herself breathe and hear herself think. She exhaled slowly and in that moment she almost felt human. “Now listen to me, both of you. This is still my body. This is still my life. And as long as there is breath in this body, I will do what I want to do, and nothing either of you says will change that. You chose to trap yourselves in here with me, to seal our fates together. You made this bed. Now lie in it.”
She paused, wondering if they would argue with her or resume their childish bickering with one another. But there was only silence rippling with the serpent’s faint amusement. Daphne nodded. “All right then.” And she leapt down from the wall and ran east across the grassy plains and hills toward the river.
As she ran she could feel the numbing cold seeping into her fingers and toes. She felt the weakness in her chest, the lightness in her head. Her heart trembled, beating so faintly and quickly that she could barely feel it at all. Just a few hours ago she had felt stronger than a howling storm but now she only wanted to lie down and sleep forever.
Soon enough.
The eastern river quickly grew from a pale line in the distance to a wide ribbon of bright water rushing quietly by the dusty banks. On the far side she saw the Kerys camp where hundreds of men in blue uniforms were just beginning to emerge from their tents with their sabers and muskets.
There isn’t much time.
“There are so many,” Serafina whispered. “Enough to hurt us, as strong as we are.”
“Nonsense,” Ophion muttered. “No mortal weapons can pierce my armor. If they could, I would have left this world long ago.”
Daphne took some small comfort in the serpent’s words. What she planned to do seemed impossible enough without an army of musketeers firing at her as she did it. After taking a long deep breath, Daphne dashed toward the bank of the river and jumped easily across the churning waters to the far side. She landed ankle-deep in soft mud and strode quickly toward the army camp. When the first tent was only a stone’s throw away, she turned her back to the men from Kerys and plunged her scaled hands deep into the soft dirt.
“Now, Ophion, let’s see what power a spirit of the earth really has.” She grabbed the soil and hauled it straight up into the air, hurling it up over her head. A great wall of earth and stone and roots rose above her, three times the height of a tall man, a bit lumpy and ragged in places but mostly sheer and entirely solid. Daphne stared up at her handiwork and nodded. “Good. That’s a start.”
She dashed to her right and where the earthen wall ended she shoved hands down into the ground again and hurled up another wall beside it, leaving no gap between them. A third time and a fourth time she ran to the end of the wall to drag the next section up out of the earth and soon her barricade wrapped halfway around the Kerys army.
Then the men began to shout. She heard them all around her. First one, then ten, then a hundred. All shouting about the wall,
all shouting at her. She glanced over her shoulder and saw a troop of men running toward her with their swords drawn, swords that she saw were bright and sharp, not rusted and dented.
Daphne leapt to the end of the wall to raise the next section and had just lifted the fifth mass of earth into place when the first musket fired. The musket ball struck the earthen wall just beside her, and she ducked as she ran on to finish her work.
When she threw the sixth wall up into the air, the soldiers were running thick and angry behind her. They couldn’t hope to run as fast as she could, but now they were firing their muskets again and again, and every heartbeat brought another lead ball whistling past her head. And as the men began shooting in earnest, she felt a very deep and terrible fear. But it was not the wildfire panic that she had felt when she had first joined with Serafina, nor was it the stunned terror she had felt when she first saw the enormous serpent lurking in the darkness beneath the Silver Ash.
This was a wide-eyed trembling fear. A nameless and wordless fear. Like a child’s fear of all the horrible things that must certainly dwell in the black shadows of the night. A deep, elemental fear that twisted about the core of her heart. She had no howling spirits to blind her to the world around her now, and now she stared out across the field, cold and still.
So many soldiers.
The two musket shots in Trevell had glanced harmlessly from her body, and there had been a maelstrom of voices and emotions to distract her then. But now she faced half an army with gleaming new weapons, wave upon wave of armed men, companies and regiments of musketeers, and the scaled gauntlets on her hands looked so very small and fragile. In all of her nineteen years, what had she ever been taught to truly fear? Fire and flood. Famine and disease. Cruelty and lies. Weapons and war.
Weapons and war.
But as she stood beside her barricade of earth and stone, wearing her armor and crown of gold and fire and darkness, she felt her fear fade like a shadow upon the coming of the dawn. The two great spirits in her breast drifted serenely within her, and for once instead of terror or rage, they both radiated a serenity as deep as the sea. Whatever else they desired or dreaded, the phoenix and the serpent cared nothing for the soldiers across the field.
They cannot harm me. There is nothing for me to fear.
Daphne smiled at the men from Kerys and waved.
A musket fired with a flash of red flame and puff of gray smoke. With darting phoenix eyes, Daphne saw the musket ball flying toward her chest, and with the speed of a striking serpent she snatched the bullet out of the air and held it tight in her armored fist. She raised her fist high over her head for the distant soldiers to see, and she dropped the little musket ball. It landed in the yellow grass with a soft thump.
The men from Kerys glanced left and right at each other in silence.
In that brief moment of stillness, Daphne wondered if any of these men even wanted to be there, to be running about in the wilderness, sleeping in tents, and shooting muskets instead of being safe at home with their families and sleeping in their own beds. Some of them looked like people she knew at home. One of them even looked like her Justin.
No, she thought. None of them woke up yesterday and thought it would be a good idea to come here and conquer Trevell. They came because they were ordered, or because they were afraid, or maybe even because they were lied to. So they bravely marched off to do their duty, to protect their homes and loved ones, no matter the cost.
“Don’t be afraid!” she called to them. “I won’t hurt you. No one will.”
She turned and leapt lightly over the grass and hurled the seventh and final section of her wall into place. Now the circle was complete, sealing the entire army of Kerys into their war camp. Daphne jumped up and stood on her wall to survey her work, but to her dismay she saw teams of soldiers already attacking the walls with shovels and axes, attempting to tunnel out of their prison.
“Your wall was a waste of time,” Ophion said, his deep voice booming over the field. “They will be free in minutes and they will reach the city gates soon after.”
Daphne felt her heart sinking. She never meant to hold the soldiers forever, only to delay them, only for a little while. But she had hoped her wall would buy more than a few meager minutes. Frowning, she looked down at her shining black hands that had seemed so strong, so perfect for this task. But then she looked just a bit farther to the yellow grass and pale roots sticking out from her wall, threading through the earth and stones at every angle from top to bottom. She smiled.
“Serafina, I need another lantern.” Daphne held out her empty hands and imagined a ball of flame floating there between her fingers, and a moment later the fire appeared, rolling and roaring and flickering merrily. She leaned down, holding the fire against the dry grass and roots and they quickly began to burn, the fire spreading outward and down across the wall like a wave of red and gold. Daphne darted along the top of the wall, still bent low to hold her ball of flame close to the ground, and in just a few moments she had circled the entire camp a second time.
Now when she stopped to look out over the camp, she saw her ring of fire roaring and crackling from north to south. The men with shovels and axes had all run away from the fire, many leaving their tools to burn in the earth walls. They stood far back from the rippling heat, staring around at their flaming prison with wide eyes and trembling hands.
Daphne yelled down to them, “Don’t be afraid!”
Ophion laughed. “You might as well tell a fish not to swim. Look at them, scared out of their minds.”
Daphne shook her head. “It can’t be helped. How long will this hold them now?”
“The fire should last an hour or so,” the phoenix said. “But no longer.”
“And then perhaps another hour for them to break through the scorched walls and march on the city,” the serpent added. “As I said, a waste of time, little girl.”
“Not at all. We have two hours. That’s all the time in the world.” Daphne smiled up at the sky where the sun was just peeking out over the eastern hills. Hints of blue shone through the dark gray clouds blanketing the heavens. “I think it’s going to be a beautiful day.”
She jumped down from her burning wall and leapt across the river, and then ran all the way to the city without looking back once.