บท 558: Never Die Alone
Aurora felt like kicking herself for making it so easy for Taran to grab her. She had planned for most everything except her undying loyalty to those she cared about.
At the sign of Alvar being in trouble, the Empress had not thought twice about her own safety.
Until now.
As she flew into the air, she did not scream for help. Taran was screeching more than enough for both of them. Her left arm was held in a vicelike grip of his remaining foot, sending shockwaves of pain through her body as her shoulder threatened to dislocate.
If that happened, she could lose any leverage she had. Luckily, The elven armor which she wore kept the sharp claws from piercing her skin. So although she was hurting, at least she was not bleeding or in danger of transforming right that moment.
Whether the lack of injury was on purpose or not, the Empress could only guess.
As it was, the Taran flew unsteadily upwards. The addition of her weight had aggravated his already unbalanced body, so his lift was severely limited to a wide arc of a spin.
Not that Taran cared. He would savor his victory. He would lift her all the way to the moon if he could and drop her from there. The monster would enjoy each and every second of her scream before Aurora met the earth one last time.
Unwilling to allow Taran the satisfaction of his fantasies without a fight, Aurora did her best to wrest herself from the abomination's control. She swung her legs back and forth rhythmically, further confounding the steady progress of her enemy's flight.
At last she managed enough of a swing to bring her legs over her head and kick Taran between the legs. Taran hissed. "Stop that!"
He jiggled the Empress like a rag doll, stopping the pendulum of her body with his counter motion. Aurora suddenly felt the world spin around her, and the contents of her stomach nearly left their home.
All around her more and more bats were swarming to aid their leader. The flapping was becoming so loud that it was deafening. One of them grabbed at her arm and another at her foot.
They hissed and screeched in a cacophony of taunts toward the helpless monarch. For a moment, Aurora was sure she was going to be ripped in two with all of the hands and feet grabbing at her body. The dress she was wearing tore to shreds, leaving only the elven armor to clad her thin frame.
The sharp talons and nails scraped up against the delicate metal rings, yet they did not penetrate through the tightly spun wire. The Empress was very glad for the cloth's strength as well as its modesty. Without it, she would be as naked as the creatures around her and far less protected.
"Release her!" Taran ordered. His voice boomed. Even with the bloodlust permeating the host of monsters, they knew better than to disobey their leader.
Aurora felt her body fall free, once more dangling only by her left arm. She had almost felt better when her load had been shared. At least then when Taran let her go, the Empress would be less likely to fall.
Now the ground felt like little more than a memory. The people below began to resemble ants. Aurora had fallen once before from the top of the palace, but this height was far more dizzying. Unless something changed, she was at the mercy of yet another flying creature set on destroying her, and she doubted very much that any portal would open and lead her to the tunnels below the castle this time.
There was only one way out...and it ended with a sudden stop on the grass below. If only he had been flying over the water, Aurora might have had a chance. But Taran knew better than to give her any hope.
As the outlet for his pain, the nobleman wanted to break her, emotionally and physically. He wanted to break the imperial army. The death of the sovereign right before their eyes would be the sweetest thing Taran had ever tasted. The bat's front teeth elongated slightly.
"Your father would be ashamed of you," Aurora screamed over the deafening sound of wings.
"Stop talking," Taran squeezed her arm. The Empress felt the bones in her upper arm crack. She cried out, but continued.
"Your father would never want this. You have sullied his name and reputation with this rebellion. He is going to disown you." Really, Aurora did not know if this was true.
All that mattered was that Taran thought it might be. The abomination only needed a small push to go feral once more. The Empress hoped she could nudge him over the edge.
"And your mother. What will she think? Not that you care. You only care for yourself...."
Taran roared. The creatures around him parted as he rose ever higher. "Any final words?"
"Only this. Long live Valiant!"
The words cut into Taran like a knife. He was fighting for Valiant, not her! He was the one protecting humanity. So what if he had given up some of himself in that pursuit. How dare she make herself look like a martyr!
His foot unclenched as he felt Aurora begin to slip from his grasp. Taran would not even give her the courtesy of a goodbye. It was better to let the terror fill her as she fell.
Just then a searing pain ripped into his right wing. An arrow--no, a spearhead-- lodged itself in one of the veins which ran through the thinly-stretched grey skin.
Taran's entire body convulsed as he tried to keep his eyes from blackening into tenebrous voids. His talons tightened around Aurora's arm, halting her slide from his grasp.
The monster was now holding onto her forearm, giving extra length to her dangling body. She began swinging her legs again, this time with a different purpose.
'Just a little more.' Aurora swayed back and forth in the air, knowing that at any moment, the monster could come to his senses and drop her for real. Any swing could be her last.
Her fingers brushed up against the edge of the spear.
'Almost.' She was so close. The great wing of the behemoth flapped up and down trying to maintain flight. Her timing had been just a little off. Aurora breathed a silent prayer. She did not care what happened to her, but the monster needed to be stopped.
'One, two, three...' The Empress counted her swings. On the third aerial arc, she got her fist around the shaft of the spear. Before the wing had time to snap back up, Aurora wrapped her legs around the broken pole and held tight.
Taran felt his leg bend at an awkward angle. He pulled violently at the Empress to bring his foot back below his body.
It was a horrible mistake.
The extra strength was what Aurora needed to complete her task. the vein, which was already spurting putrid blood, finally tore the rest of the way. The spear came loose and ripped into the thin flesh of the wing.
The skin shredded like paper, allowing a huge gash to form on the lower half of Taran's right wing. The nobleman reached out to stop the catastrophe, but he was too late. The damage was done.
Like a wounded kite, the two sides of the wing flapped and fluttered around the gaping hole. Taran wailed both from pain and frustration. As the spear came free of the abomination's wing, Aurora somehow managed to hold onto the shaft with her free hand.
Her stomach roiled with all of the motion and her head swam with what she was about to do. But that did not stop her.
With as much aim as she could muster, the Empress plunged the spear between Taran's taloned toes and pressed with all her might. More blood spilled out onto her armor. Between the wing and newly injured foot, the air was filling with droplets of fetid purple-red liquid.
Aurora tried not to let it get in her face and eyes. Although transforming might fix her problem short-term, it was not an ending she could bear. And just now, she didn't think the transformation would happen in time anyway.
Because her plan worked. Taran released her. She was falling.
But her plan worked! Taran was falling too. Though his descent was slowed by his one working wing, there was nothing he could do to stop his plummet to the earth. The creatures around him were too feral or too selfish to help their master in his time of need.
They had been more than willing to share in the Empress's destruction, but the spilling of Taran's blood had sent the creatures lusting after the liquid spilling into the sky. They fought each other for a taste of the putrid nectar. It was a horrific sight.
Which meant that neither Aurora nor Taran were going to get help from the feral beasts.
Instead, they would die together.
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