The wind moaned as a protest single racer as Elara's party fell from the Silver Fang fortress the morning after. Varik had given her no firm commitment—yet. A tentative agreement to scout and observe, nothing more. It wasn't enough, but it was a start.
Wrapped in her heavy cloak, Elara rode in silence, her mind as cold and sharp as the frostbitten landscape. The Jade Lotus was in the shade, but they couldn't wait forever. With every postponement it gave her oppressors opportunity to make their hold firmer.
Bael rode beside her, his hand never far from his sword. "Varik plays the long game. He's testing you, Princess."
He is welcome to test me as much as he likes," Elara said, calmly. However, when the north is burning, no games will be played.
Bael nodded in assent, but his gaze flitted nervously over the woods edge. "Something feels off. We're being watched."
Elara nodded. She'd felt it too. That prickling on the back of her neck. The sense of unseen eyes crawling over her. It wasn't the Silver Fangs—Varik's people were brutal but not subtle.
"Scout ahead," she ordered. "Double the perimeter. If they come, I want to see them first."
Bael pointed to two mounts, who galloped and disappeared into the forest. Elara tightened her hold on the reins. Let them come. They got it wrong associating her with weakness, it will be their fatal error.
The attack came at dusk.
It started with the hiss of a solitary arrow shooting from the darkness and severing a trooper's neck. The man fell from his horse without a sound. The forest erupted into chaos.
"Ambush!" Bael roared, drawing his sword as shadowy figures emerged from the trees. Clad in dark robes and masks adorned with lotus flowers, the Jade Lotus assassins moved like ghosts, their blades glinting in the dying light.
Elara dismounted, her froststeel dagger already in her hand. Her guards formed a ring around her, swords drawn. The enemy moved quickly, their strikes precise and ruthless. Another two men hit the snow and bled crimson red.
Bael cut down one of the assassins with a powerful swing, but three more took his place. "Protect the Princess!" he bellowed.
Elara's pulse quickened, but she remained calm. A lifetime of courtly lessons had taught her that fear was the first enemy to conquer. Her grip tightened on the dagger as an assassin slipped past her guards, lunging toward her.
Too fast.
Elara evaded the attack, her cloak moving like a shadow, and plunged her dagger into his side. The assassin let out a strangled gasp as he crumpled to the ground. Blood seeped into the snow at her feet.
Another shadow approached—a woman with twin curved blades, her movements fluid and lethal. Elara's attendant dropped to his knees before her, and his throat severed in one swift stroke. The assassin's cold gaze locked onto Elara.
The leader, Elara realized.
Before the woman could strike, Bael intercepted her, his blade clashing violently against hers. Sparks flew as steel met steel. The two fought with brutal efficiency, their strikes calculated and merciless. But the woman was quick—quicker than Bael.
Elara scanned the battlefield. Her guards were holding the line, but barely. For every hit man they killed, four more stood in their place. The Jade Lotus didn't come to fight—they came to kill.
And she was the prize.
"Princess! Run!" Bael shouted, his voice strained.
Elara hesitated for only a moment. Staying meant death. She turned and sprinted toward her horse, her breath misting in the cold air. Her boots pounded against the snow, every step heavier than the last.
A figure loomed in her path. Another assassin.
Elara's blade shimmered, but he sidestepped it with ease, sending her crashing to the floor. Her head hit the frozen ground, stars flashin in her eyes. The assassin stood over her, his blade raised to finish the job.
And then he froze.
A moaning deep growl emanated from the clearing, rumbling and raw. The assassin's eyes widened. Out of the undergrowth of the trees, a giant beast - silver-bodied and with a furious grin - stepped into sight, its eyes ablaze with something alien.
The Silver Fang wolves.
The shooter turned to escape, but the animal was quicker. It lunged, jaws snapping and dragging him screaming into darkness. With increasing numbers of howls, another group of wolves attacked upon the Jade Lotus assassins haunting the forest. Chaos turned to slaughter.
Elara struggled to her feet, her vision still swimming. Bael appeared at her side, bloodied but alive. "We need to move, now!"
He helped her onto her horse first and then on to his horse. The surviving sentries fought back, urging their mounts as the wolves attacked the remaining assassins. Echoing screams, both human and animal, filled the forest as Elara's party scrambled for the cover of the night.
They rode hard until the forest gave way to open plains. The snowstorm had calmed, but the sky remained an endless slate of gray. Elara dismounted, her legs shaky, and glanced back toward the tract of trees. The wolves had saved them—but why?
Bael approached her, his face grim. "The Silver Fang wolves don't hunt without reason, Princess. Someone sent them."
Elara's gaze drifted north, toward the mountains that hid Varik Stormclaw's stronghold. "Varik."
Bael frowned. "You think he knew about the ambush?"
"I think," Elara said slowly, "he's watching me as much as the Jade Lotus are."
Bael nodded, sheathing his sword. "What now? We lost half our men."
Elara's jaw tightened. "We go back to Aeloria. This attack wasn't random—it was a warning. The Jade Lotus are growing bolder. If we don't act now, they'll strike at the heart of the kingdom.".
She turned to Bael, her eyes cold and unyielding. "Send word to the clans. Get every single ally ready to march when it's warm enough even when the snow is still on the ground," I said.
"And Varik?" Bael asked.
Elara glanced back at the distant mountains. The wolves had been his message—one she wouldn't ignore.
"I'll deal with him soon enough."
The Castle of Aeloria
Castle gates sprawled before them, in the snow-plowed streets of the capital, the spendthrift's caravan eye rolled toward Elara's spent party came on loop. Word of their return spread quickly. Guards lined the walls, their faces pale with concern. The scope of The Jade Lotus no longer was (and never will be) a myth—it is war.
Elara dismounted, her gait steady despite the fatigue in her body. Bael fell into step beside her. "What's the first move, Princess?"
Elara paused, looking up at the castle she called home. For the first time, they took on more of the sign of a trap as opposed to a fortress.
"We root them out," she said. "Every traitor. Every spy. We pull them out of the darkness and show them to the everybody.
She looked at Bael, her voice hard as steel. The Jade Lotus will find out that this kingdom does not bow down to the cowardly who stay in the shadows.
The night sky darkened as another snowstorm gathered on the horizon. Yet, in the castle walls, flames flickered with such intensity, and Elara's will burned with an even brighter light.
The war had begun.
And she would not lose.