The Crown's Fire - Chapter 67

Chapter 67: In control
Moments slipped away, and Tarah devoted herself to keeping Ezekiel company while they awaited Queen Dana’s return, ensuring his comfort and attending to his needs in the meantime.

“Just a little longer,” she murmured softly to him, her voice a reassuring whisper, as she gently wiped away a smudge of dirt from his still form. “We’ll have you out of harm’s way soon enough.”

Eventually, Queen Dana, accompanied by wizard Lurio, reentered Ezekiel’s tent to commence the extraction of Vulcan’s soul. With solemn determination, they began the preparations for the ritual. Tarah, as Vulcan’s dragonrider, stood still understanding her important role as the only one capable of controlling the dragon’s soul should they encounter any mishaps.

“Are you ready, Tarah?” the Queen asked her once the preparations were in place.

“I’m ready…”

Maintaining her silence, Tarah watched as Queen Dana and wizard Lurio performed the extraction procedure. Despite her reservations, she couldn’t bring herself to intervene. Some things were simply meant to happen, and deep down, she knew that the queen’s efforts would likely be in vain.

“Let’s begin.”

With a short chant, the Queen began the procedure in earnest. And while Tarah knew that it wasn’t going to work, she still found herself holding her breath as she watched Ezekiel float ever so slightly in his bed. There was no chance that it was going to be successful, and yet, somehow, she still found it in herself to hope that nothing would ever go wrong.

But alas, this was fated to happen. Currently, the dragon’s spirit was still in the delicate process of merging with Ezekiel’s, rendering the extraction of Vulcan impossible at the moment. Tarah could always try to explain things, but she couldn’t bring herself to voice the truth to the Queen, seeing as doing so would inevitably arouse suspicion regarding her true motives.

There was simply no way, and she could only let out a heavy sigh as her shoulders slumped in resignation. She couldn’t possibly admit that her actions were driven by her plan to deliver Ezekiel to Devon with Vulcan still in his body in order to facilitate the successful extraction from Devon’s side. It was far too complex a situation to explain, and she was sure that Queen Dana as a mother wouldn’t dare risk compromising the safety of her son for what was essentially a stranger like her.

“Any progress?” Wizard Lurio asked the queen.

“I’m… hitting an impasse,” the queen winced. “Their souls refuse to come apart for some reason. Something is off…”

The seconds ticked by as Tarah simply stood by the sidelines, powerless to even help while the queen struggled in vain in her impossible task. This would all have to stop at one point or another, but that wasn’t her call to decide. It was a family matter and Queen Dana had all the authority to do what she thought was best for her son.

Eventually, however, all things must come to an end, the Queen slumped down to her knees as she finished the procedure in vain. She was panting at the exertion, but success was clearly far from sight as she frowned at her son’s now waking form.

“E-Ezekiel?” Queen Dana weakly asked. “Are you alright, my son?”

Tarah clenched her fists as the prince awoke. From what she could gather, while the procedure was far from a success, it still managed to agitate the merging process enough that Ezekiel woke up. And based on the rapidly rising temperature around them, clearly, something bad had happened.

“We don’t have much time,” Ezekiel stated, his eyes wide and alert as he quickly turned to Lurio. “I need to shift back to being a dragon. Whatever happened, Vulcan’s soul isn’t happy with being disturbed like this.”

Tarah stood silent as she prepared herself for the inevitable. There was no telling what would happen now.

“W-What?” the queen asked incredulously. “How is it-”

“I need to become a dragon to control one, Mother,” Ezekiel hurriedly stated. “Now where’s the portal? I need to be somewhere that I can’t be seen. I can’t… I can’t hold onto this for much longer.”

Seeing the urgency, Wizard Lurio quickly opened up a new teleportation portal just in front of Ezekiel. Even now as he waited for the portal to truly open, Tarah felt the heat coming off the prince in spades. Not that she was ready for what was to come, but there was a sense of knowing in her that she would be needed in the immediate future.

“Where will you go?” Queen Dana asked.

“Somewhere. Anywhere that I can’t be seen,” Ezekiel tersely stated. “I don’t want to be a liability in our own camp. The dragon might rampage, or worse.”

“I agree,” Tarah nodded. “There is too much at stake right now to be waiting for things to happen. The procedure was a failure, but at least-”

Before Tarah could even continue, Ezekiel cut her off. “I have to go. I’ll contact you all through Tarah using our Dragon Bond,” he quickly stated, his grimace showing just how much pain he was in just holding Vulcan back from taking over. “I’ll be back shortly once I’ve gained full control. Just wait for my return. I promise I’ll be back.”

With those words, Ezekiel didn’t hesitate to jump into the portal, leaving the three to simply stare at the spot where he once stood. Then, seeing as the prince was now gone, Lurio deactivated the spell, leaving them alone with their thoughts as they inwardly worried for their prince.

“I hope you know what you’re doing, my son,” Queen Dana sighed as she picked herself back up.

“I’m sure he’ll come back to us,” Tarah reassured the older woman. “If anything, I’m sure that he’ll be fully in control once he returns.”

It was a foregone conclusion, after all. After everything she had done, she was sure that Ezekiel would come back to them, and he would be at his strongest; stronger than he had ever been before.