Perhaps sensing the fatigue of his foes, Reynard laughed and sent a barrage of stones in Idelle's direction. She hid behind a sofa, hearing the rocks slam into the cushions near her head.

"Had enough yet?" Reynard called. "You can just leave and stop the killing. Is just one life worth all the ones you're losing right now? What makes this little girl so much more important than your Guard?"

Idelle couldn't see him right now, but if she could she would have killed him with her glare. He wanted to blame her for staying and fighting when it was he who had started the whole thing in the first place? She gripped her sword tighter, waiting for Reynard's barrage to stop as he gathered more rocks from the wall.

"Captain!" Sabena shouted. She was a bit to Idelle's right, near the door. Idelle glanced over to see the older woman nodding toward the ante-chamber.

Framed in the doorway, Thellamy stood with his hair and clothes dripping wet. He was mostly hidden in the shadows, hidden by the darkness and the angle from Reynard. Idelle started to turn, ready to fight him, but he held a finger to his lips and shook his head. Slowly, he raised his hands to show that there was nothing within them. Then, he carefully pointed at Aelga. Though he didn't say a word, it was clear what he was trying to let her know. He could get to Aelga. The door was near the bed, and Reynard was too far to the right to do much to stop someone in Thellamy's position. If Thellamy could get to Aelga's bed without being hit, he could grab her and get her to safety.

Idelle hesitated. Should she trust him? He could be a false hope, taking Aelga from the frying pan and into the fire. But he was also her only hope. Whether he was following Yseult's orders or not, he had been meeting Aelga on those secret rendezvous. He may not be in love, but it was impossible not to feel something for someone you were that close with. Right now, he looked concerned and a bit frightened, and that was better than Reynard's chaotic glee.

She nodded to Thellamy, then turned to her scattered Guard seeking shelter behind whatever furniture they could. She caught Sabena's attention and held her pointer finger up on both hands, then tilted her hands so that her fingers pointed forward. She then jerked her thumbs back toward her chest. It was a signal they had just learned, part of a set meant for when orders could not be heard due to the environment, and it meant to concentrate their attack on her mark. Sabena passed it on to the nearest Guard, who passed it on to his nearest neighbor, and so on until Idelle was satisfied that everyone knew what she wanted.

Glancing back at Thellamy to make sure he was ready, Idelle counted three seconds out. With each number, she breathed out sharply and drew back in a breath. This could be the end, but it might mean Aelga's life was saved.

1,2,3.

She leaned back and kicked the sofa forward, sending it careening toward Reynard. He gasped, forced to stop firing in the few seconds that the sofa bounced by him. In that gap, Idelle grabbed the stones he had already thrown at them and started slinging them back. It was only giving him more ammunition, but it was all she had.

The other Guards followed her lead, throwing furniture or whatever ranged weapons they had at Reynard. They all screamed and yelled, and Idelle attempted to get them close enough to physically attack him, though that plan failed when he began to shift the floor underneath them. Idelle fell on her side, hissing as pain shot up her hip and into her back. She rolled over, ducking underneath a large wardrobe and throwing what stones she could at his feet.

With all the Guards taking up his attention, Reynard did not seem to notice Thellamy until he was already at Aelga's bedside and scooping her up into his arms. Her red hair spilled down over his arm, contrasting with his black clothes, and he held her tight against his chest as he made his way back to the door. Reynard, now aware of his presence, yelled and lunged toward him.

Idelle crawled out from the wardrobe and grabbed a cane chair to sling at Reynard and knock him back. He growled in anger, falling into a curtain, while Thellamy ducked through the door and out into the ante chamber.

Idelle breathed out a huff of relief. Aelga was safe, at least for now. The Guard only had to keep Reynard busy, and hopefully Thellamy would be able to get her away from the castle and somewhere where the fire mages wouldn't be able to attack.

Reynard, perhaps due to his fury, ripped a large section of the floor up with his magic. A huge slab floated in the air, suspended as Reynard struggled to control it, his face red. He glared at Idelle, the nearest target, and flung the stone at her. Thankfully, its size dampened his magic, which meant it was more of a toss than a hurtle. The stone heaved through the air and landed with a crash just behind Idelle. Dust and stone shards blasted her back and swirled into her face. She felt the sting of the shards biting into her skin and had to cover her eyes. By the time she could see again, Reynard was standing only a few feet away. She swung her sword up, holding the blade between herself and the High Lord.

"That idiot boy!" he roared, seemingly more occupied by Thellamy than he was with Idelle at the moment. She glanced behind her, but saw that the section of flooring that Reynard had lifted prevented the Guard from reaching her right away. She was stuck alone with him, at least for the moment, and she turned back. At least he was within her sword range, at last, and she finally felt like she might stand a chance.

"If Thellamy is alive, that means Yseult could be as well," she said. "Are you prepared for the consequences of betraying her?"

Reynard snorted. "She betrayed me first, long before now," he said.

Idelle cocked an eyebrow. "How did she do that?" She was stalling for time, hoping to keep him talking so that her Guard could make their way around the stone and the hole to help her.

"I've been living in this magicless wasteland for the majority of my life, hiding in plain sight under the orders of Yseult's grandfather," Reynard said, spitting out the words. "I was to fit in, gain trust, and never let anyone know that I was not a Wynherst man. I had to hide my magic, never use it, and pretend like I agreed with everything the stupid kings thought about Glastonbex. I did all that for decades and decades, biding my time, waiting for the perfection time to take down Wynherst. And then Yseult waltzes in and ruins it all!"

"How?" Idelle asked, putting in a mocking tone so that he would not realize what she was doing. She hoped to gode him, keep him angry. "Your plan was so flimsy?"

Reynard snarled. "I had Aengus under my wing and he trusted me completely," he said. "I was finally about to put my long wait into action and guide Aengus into a position where he would start making bad decisions that would crumble his entire army. Glastonbex would have been able to walk into Wynherst and destroy it with ease. But then Yseult had to rise to power and take matters into her own hands. She ordered me to poison Aengus under threat of revealing who I was. She ruined everything by putting that little kitten on the throne who would never listen to me."

Reynard paced back and forth now, his hands working in front of him, drawing up pebbles that spun in the air but did not launch toward Idelle. Not yet. He was preoccupied by his plans, ruined and destroyed, and the woman who was responsible. "We could have been sole rulers by now, but she created a wrinkle. Now we have a healthy queen who has little advisors around her that fight me, turn her against me. Yseult thinks binding her to that boy will bring a faster end to the war, but she's too naive. The people will not go quietly now. They will revolt, want their kingdom back. It will not be a decisive victory, at the fault of their own king, that they must accept. It is a slow and unsteady decline that they will not tolerate. She risks it all for her own ridiculous plans that she thought were somehow better than my decades of building knowledge and connections!"

"So that's why you wanted to kill Yseult? Because she ruined your plans?" Idelle asked. She glanced to her side and saw Walliam near the opposite wall, trying to get around a load of heavy furniture. She needed a few more minutes.

"Yes. If she betrayed me, I would betray her," Reynard muttered. "The fire mages were eager to listen to a leader who actually wanted to take action. Using them, I could kill and slaughter, and then blame it on Yseult. If she dies in the attack, there is no one to defend her. Then, I could make sure the next in line, the Duke of Bradcombe, met his gruesome end in battle, like a soldier would, leaving the throne free for the trusted advisor of their father."

"You wanted to be king?"

Reynard laughed. "King? No. Emperor. With Yseult gone, the barons would self-destruct in their attempts to claim her place, and it would be no problem for me to use Wynherst's armies to conquer their land. With the magic of Glastonbex, I'd be able to continue conquering all the countries I wished."

He looked at her now, and Idelle knew she was running out of time. He swirled his hand in the air, the pebbles rearing up. She had nowhere to hide, no way to avoid the dangerous projectiles.

"You think magic is your answer?" Idelle spat out. This made Reynard pause. "Do you know why Wynherst resists magic? Because it corrupts. It is a force that brings too much power for humans to use without rotting their souls. Once a country is infiltrated by magic, it slowly goes mad with power and the pursuit of more."

Reynard shrugged. "And you see that without magic, you are weak and powerless?" he said. "Why would we want to be something like that after we've had a taste of what magic can do? What it can give you?"

Idelle frowned. "And do you know what not having magic can do? It makes a man brave. I have never seen men so brave as the soldiers I fought with in the trenches. They knew they were at a disadvantage but they still fought. They strove for something greater, not letting their own personal gain take over. They wanted to help and protect each other. It brought them together and made them strong as a people. That is why Wynherst has been able to survive for so long. That is how we still win battles, even though your magicians are stronger."

"Whatever you believe, girl, you'll soon see that bravery is nothing in the grand scheme of things," Reynard said, swinging his arm through the air. The rocks and pebbles flew through the air, raining down on her. She dodged a few, but couldn't get away from them all. She tried to duck and crawl over to Walliam and Sabena, who she saw were just a few feet away now, but as she worked her way through the rubble, she felt the floor heave under her. Her head whipped over to see Reynard laughing hysterically as he lifted his arms above his head. His hands shook, like he was lifting a massive weight into the air, and Idelle felt the ground beneath her buck and jerk. She barely had enough time to look back at her Guard, see the horror on their faces, before the stones beneath her crumbled and fell away, leaving her to fall to the ground floor.

She slammed into boxes that had been stacked on the floors below, and felt bones snap and shatter. If that had been it all, she might have been able to crawl away and wait for her Guard to come fetch her. Yet, within the space it took her to blink, the rubble of the floor she'd fallen through rained down on her. It blocked all the light and air, and all Idelle knew was blinding pain. She screamed but all she tasted was dust and stone and blood and more pain. As it grew and grew, she knew she couldn't survive this amount of torture. As rubble continued to fall onto her, her eyes fluttered shut, her head fell back, and she slipped away into blackness with only enough room to think how glad she was that Torran and Aelga had managed to get away. If she was going to die, she'd rather do it knowing that those she loved most were still breathing.

Her mind flickered out, and like a dying flame, all went dark.