It had to be the most beautiful castle Janus had ever seen, made from transparent ice and bright white snow atop the mountain like a crowning jewel. It reflected the sky and so it was filled with many shades of blue. He approached the entrance that was guarded by two over sized suits of armour. Janus kept his eye on them for several long minutes before unhooking his hand from his sword. Despite the fact that they looked like they were made from ice, he didn’t trust that they could not come to life.

But they were mere statues and paid him no heed as he walked up to the filigree gates and pushed them in and entered the main hall. Its beauty would have disgraced the most elaborate palace in the known world and in spite of the tension in his body, Janus could not help but admire the imagination and skill to create such a beautiful castle.

His footsteps echoed over the floor that had carved patterns through the thick ice, light shining through sheer windows set in packed snow frames. Overhead chandeliers glistened in their pristine arrangement. But there was no warmth. No invitation to stay. Everything was cold and frozen. It was beautiful to behold but could never be more than that.

Even the one piece of furniture, the throne, was uninviting.

In this castle one would only ever look and admire…never live. It was not built for comfort or was it ever intended to be a home. This extraordinary creation was a boast of the Snow Queen’s precise skill when using her power. And it was a convincing one.

Janus moved past the throne and the two unicorn statues to where Marjellan had said there was a back door that would take him where he needed to go. The ice door opened and he stepped down a short flight of stairs to a stand at the brink of the maze.

The mountain had no peak. It had been lost somehow in the past and now its entire wide girth was flat like a frozen lake with a slight rocky border all the way around. And sticking up out of the lake were sheets of ice. Ranging between ten to twelve feet high the sheets of ice were no thicker than his finger and their peaks were jagged and glinted in the weak sunlight. Janus’ reflection was almost perfect in their façade as he walked up to one and gingerly pressed his fingertips to it.

“So this is the maze,” he said, his breath white and it immediately fogged up his reflection, “and at the centre…Jé Kinah.” He made sure his sword was at the ready and his shield strap was not twisted before stepping past the first panel of ice. He could hear his footfall echo, gently fading out into nothing and then allowed himself to breathe.

Abruptly the ice panels shifted, racing across the surface without cracking and Janus jumped out of the way as one came racing towards him. He half stumbled and reached out to steady himself. He swore as he cut himself on the edge of one of the sheets of ice and looked around at the, now deadly, maze. If it continued to shift, he could lose an arm or a leg…or worse…

“You must remain light on your feet.” He said then flinched before stepping back into the maze.

Ice shifted and instead of stepping backwards, he moved forwards and across. The ice shifted again and he twisted out of its way. A third shift nearly sliced him into three pieces as he turned sideways and allowed two panels to flow, one in front and one in back of him. He let out the breath he was holding and shivered.

“This is deadly.” He gasped and then paused. He could hear footsteps. They echoed like his but he had not moved for several seconds. These footsteps were new.

Janus took out his sword and waited. The footsteps had paused and he willed his heart to beat a little quieter.

Suddenly something scampered to his right and he dashed after it, hearing the ice respond to his movement and come racing after him. He slipped and skidded out of the way then threw himself back as another panel came towards him. He flung himself back up onto his feet and spun around, the footsteps echoing past him. Their deadly dance moved all the way around the mountain’s girth though never getting any closer to the centre. But Janus was getting closer because at times he could see a flash of colour in the panels, the reflection of someone else in the maze.

Finally he stopped, his back pressed against a sheet of ice. He could hear whoever it was moving behind him. He gripped his sword and swung it hard against the panel upon which he had hidden behind. The ice shattered, splintering in all directions and through the crystals that flew through the air he caught sight of the full reflection in the panel mirror just beyond.

She hadn’t changed at all. Her face was pale like porcelain and her lips were tinged with a hint of pink. Her eyes were green like moss and her hair flowed like pale gold silk around her face and her pointed ears. She wore a long green tunic with billowing cream sleeves and a rope belt around her little waist.

She was perfect, without blemish…exactly as his discarded memories had once painted her.

“Jé Kinah?” He croaked and she gasped, running away, her reflection disappearing from the panel. “Wait! Come back!”

He lunged after her, using his sword to break the ice panels but as quickly as he destroyed them, they rebuilt themselves into seamless perfection and then shifted with deadly precision, aiming for their attacker. Janus barely survived one panel when another clipped the back of his head. His cry echoed out and he clutched his skull, his hand coming away, wet with blood.

“Damn it.” He grunted and looked at his bloody hand. “This is not worth it!”

“Are you hurt?”

He looked up in surprise and saw Jé Kinah’s face peering across an ice panel, most of her body hidden from view. Janus twisted but could not see where she was standing in order to cast the reflection. He turned back and saw she had stepped into full view in the mirror of ice, looking down at him with deep concern in her eyes.

“You are bleeding.”

He swallowed. “Head wounds bleed the most…but it is nothing serious.”

“Are you sure?”

She was so concerned, so pathetic in her reflection that he shook his head, unwilling to allow her deception to fool him.

“At least it got your attention.” He stood up and saw her raise up on her tiptoes as though about to flee. “Wait!” He called. “I just want to talk.”

She gripped her skirts but did not move. “About what?”

He floundered. “Well…I…”

“You should not be here.” She looked around. “It is dangerous for you.”

“I noticed.”

“No…not from the ice…from the fire.” She was so pathetic and frail. This Jé Kinah was nothing like the one that had rescued him in the forest or who had torn out his heart in the palace. She was a faint reproduction…like a spirit. “You have to go.”

“Jé Kinah!” He yelled as she vanished and he sprinted after her. “Wait! Don’t you know me?”

He ran half hazard through the deadly maze until suddenly…it stopped shifting. Janus froze and looked around, waiting for disaster to fall. Instead, Jé Kinah moved into frame, staring at him.

“Do I know you?” She asked.

“You did…once.”

She stared at his face somewhat vacantly and started to shake her head.

“J…Evander.” Janus sighed. “My name is…was…you knew me as Evander.”

“Evander…” He cursed the ability she had to simply say his name in order to make his legs quiver. He watched as she ran her tongue across her teeth as though tasting the word. “Evander…”

“You asked me to call you Jé.”

“I did?”

“Yes.”

She paused. “Why have you come?”

“To,” he paused now, realising he was about to say something he had fantasised about so many times in the past, “to rescue you…” And it sounded so remarkably lame.

Jé Kinah didn’t mock him for his cliché gush. Instead, she frowned. “Do I need rescuing?”

“I believe so.”

She looked up. “Do I deserve rescuing?”

“That is a strange question.”

“Not an unreasonable one.” She looked around. “Hush…can you hear it?” Janus tensed, listening intently but all he could hear was the beat of his own heart. Jé Kinah looked around, her eyes widening in fear. “You have to go.”

“No.”

“You must.” She leaned close, her face becoming large in her reflection. “It is coming.”

“I can protect you!” Janus cried as she sprinted out of sight, disappearing from one panel and reappearing on the next. “Jé Kinah wait!” He ran after her, dodging ice sheets as he barely kept her in sight. “You cannot keep running from this!” He stopped, realising that she had vanished. “Why won’t you talk to me? Why won’t you tell me what happened to you?”

He spun around on the spot then began slashing at the panels in a rage, knowing that they rebuilt themselves but doing it anyway. He smashed his way through a dozen in a blaze of shattered glory before the maze shifted, panels of razor sharp ice coming at him from every side and angle.

Janus swung his sword around, screaming at the onslaught when, suddenly, they stopped. The ice creaked as though straining against invisible reins before dragging backwards to a safe distance. Janus looked around in shock, his sword still up in case the reins snapped.

Jé Kinah stepped into view on every panel that surrounded him, weak hope on her features.

“Are you sure you want to know?”

Janus swallowed. “No. But I have to know. I have to understand.”

“And then will you forgive me?”

He grimaced. “I don’t know.”

Jé Kinah nodded. “I understand.” She waved her arm and suddenly the ice rocked and shifted, its surfaces rippling with life as a landscape came into view. It was a dark one with a bleak castle mounted on black rock with a backdrop of smoke and lava. Janus could almost smell the sulphur and hear the bubbling of liquid fire in its basin.

“There was once a legend of a princess, beautiful beyond imagining, imprisoned in the tower of a castle at the edge of the world.” Janus could see a light glowing at the top of the tower, its light managing to glow through the haze of smoke that surrounded it. “The castle was guarded by the deadliest of beasts. A dragon.” Janus felt his body tense up and his hand flexed around his sword as a roar that caused the ice to tremble and the ground to rumble, echoed around them. He watched as a dragon, whose scales were as black as night yet rippled with a strange metallic green, clambered over the castle. Its horned snout snorted smoke and its jaw was filled with jagged uneven teeth. A ridge of spike ran down its back and its eyes burned red and dark. Its wingspan was enormous, even up to one hundred feet as it stretched its leathery hide out as far as it could. The wings were attached to its shoulders and when it flew, it hung from them, its claws as sharp as dwarf axes and its tongue the colour of tar.

“Dragons had become extinct hundreds of years before but one, the most cunning of its kind and so evil its foulness collapsed in on itself, turning it into a demon, survived by making deals with desperate men and women. It offered them escape from their torment by giving them the power to change into its form. It fed off the host’s fear and hate, consuming their soul with more death and despair than could be imagined and wrecked havoc on the earth it hated. Once a host had agreed to be empowered by it, only death of its host could remove it and when that happened it would look for another pathetic creature to take as its own. In this way it far outlasted its kind and did much unforgiveable damage. The dragon terrorised the land around it but did not venture from the castle for more than a day, always keeping it in its sights in case of valiant, noble and ultimately foolish guests.”

The ice shifted and Janus moved with it, watching as the image dropped to the front gates that looked familiar to him. The knight rode in, banner held high and stopped in the large hall.

“Dragon!” He cried. “I am Sir Tyburn, knight of the round table! I have come for the princess and for your head!”

Janus watched as the image drew close to the knight as he rode into the hall that empty.

“Are you afraid to face me?”

The image moved upwards and suddenly Janus saw the great hulking form of the dragon crawling silently over the ruins of walls, saliva dripping from its jaw.

“Look out!” Janus yelled instinctively but the knight did not, could not, hear him and the dragon pounced on the knight and horse and a brief and futile, battle commenced until the horse was thrown down in a sickening crash to the floor of the hall and the knight, still squirming in the dragon’s grasp, was lifted up to the stinking sharp jaws. Janus looked away and squeezed his eyes shut. He couldn’t stay that way forever and peeked out to see those large, red reptilian eyes fixated on him. Its jaw opened, blood smeared across its scales and a trickle of smoke poured out of the corner of its mouth.

Janus tried to step back but he ran into a wall of ice. He knew he was watching memories of some kind but he could not keep himself from trying to flee…as the dragon lunged for him. He, who had faced off against Minotaur, giants, trolls, goblins and harpies could not escape the instinct that occurred when that reptilian snout and jagged teeth closed down around him.

“Ahhhh!” He cried and ducked down and cowered…waiting for the beast to consume him. But there was nothing.

“You are not hurt.” He looked up and saw Jé Kinah kneeling bare inches from him in the reflection of the ice that he cowered against. He burned with embarrassment at looking so foolish, especially when he saw the dragon feasting on the dead horse in a reflection of a memory…decades ago.

“No. I am not.” He cleared his throat and gazed at her face, so close and yet so far from him.

“You do not have to continue.”

“No. I mean yes.” He grimaced. “I want to continue. Please.” He looked back at the reflection that had pulled back to the exterior of the castle and the dragon clambering all over it, curling its body about its ruins in devilish delight. “I think I understand. You were the princess. You were locked in the tower and you made a deal with the dragon in order to get out. You were desperate. I understand.”

Jé Kinah gazed at him sadly and stood up. “You understand nothing.” She said softly and gestured to the scene before them. Janus turned to see the dragon climbing down into the hall, its body contorting and snapping into a familiar shape. Its wings dripped away like tar and out of the darkness and the scales, a woman emerged. She was slender with long, black hair that framed her face which was devoid of colour. Her eyes were dark and the veins on her skin never truly receded from the surface, her heart pumping black blood around her body. She wore ragged back robes and, as the transformation had clearly exhausted her, she sank into the broken stone throne, red blood smeared on her hands and cheek.

“No…” Janus whispered. “Dear God…no…” He turned away, his stomach heaving at the thought of it all. His hand gripped a panel of ice, scraping the skin and drawing blood but he didn’t let go lest he collapse. He took a step away, trying to keep mobile and upright. Then another…and another…until he was suddenly sprinting out of the maze, the panels of ice doing nothing to stop him run to the edge of the plateau and skid to his knees. He was so hot he thought he might explode and he dragged at the coat and collar around him, his skin clammy and his hands shaking.

She ate people. She ate people!

“Demon…” He wheezed. “Devil! Dragon…” He looked over his shoulder at the maze of ice sitting innocently behind him, almost inviting in its glistening white beauty. There was no sign of Jé Kinah, dark or otherwise. He felt the burn of humiliation. When had this happened? How had it happened? And how on earth could he have missed it?

“I did not know that Jé Kinah was that dragon, the very beast I desired to hunt…until I watched her transform before my very eyes.”

So he was not the only one who had missed her true nature.

“How could she?” He covered his mouth, thinking about how he had nearly kissed the same lips that had been coated in the blood of men. How could he have felt anything for someone so depraved and vile?

“Then I suggest you attempt to rekindle that which you once cherished and forgive Jé Kinah because I am ordering you to go behind enemy lines and rescue her.”

The Count’s words came back to him and Janus shuddered at the thought. “No. Not now. Not ever.” He felt his stomach heave and swallowed it down as his eyes watered. “No one ever could.”

“When we met her, she was alone.”

“She was travelling on her own when she rescued me.”

“And she never stayed to be congratulated. In fact she avoided it.”

“And any attempt to ask her to stay failed.”

“You see!” He roared, standing up and pointing back to the ice maze. “She doesn’t want anyone! She cannot love and cannot be loved!” His words were whipped away by the strong wind and he felt heavy, as if his heart had suddenly turned to lead. He waited as if expecting to be challenged but there was nothing, no response, no argument. He was alone, bearing the weight of it all because there was no one else.

No one else…except the memory of words spoken to him without condemnation or fear.

“I know because I saw you all those years ago when you were barely more than a boy. You have changed Evander but I know it is you. When I knew you, you had hope and were bursting with adoration for the woman you stood beside.” Janus turned his head as though he could escape the words of Snow White in his mind. “No one can remember Jé Kinah ever being with anyone or travelling with anyone…but I remember you. I remember that she saved you in the forest and that you fought alongside the dwarves and Jé Kinah when the beasts came after us. You stood side by side at our wedding. You left with her…”

“She abandoned me!” Janus roared against the silent onslaught. “She left me!”

The pause was terrible, like the terrifying teeter on the tightrope above a bottomless chasm where life itself hung in the balance.

“She was afraid.”

“Of you?”

“No. Of herself. She was so frightened she would hurt us that she left our company the moment she could. I saw the fear in her eyes…”

“She abandoned me in the forest. She drove me away in the city! She left me!”

“Maybe now…you understand why.”

Janus stopped, his breathe barely able to leave his chest that had tightened as if it was trying to squeeze life out of his body.

“Maybe now…” He swallowed past the lump in his throat and looked back at the maze. “But it is still impossible.” His teeth pressed together and he rubbed his forehead. Somehow his feet, that had taken him so quickly from the maze, turned him around and walked him back into it. The panels didn’t shift, as if they were stunned in disbelief that he had returned. They thought they had scared him off for good. Eventually he found the scene of the dark Jé Kinah slumped on her throne.

“You do not have to continue.” Jé Kinah behind him said and he turned to look at her with greater understanding, a touch of fear and a great deal of disgust in his heart. She flinched at his sharp perusal and looked away, embarrassed to be so scrutinised. He looked to and from the image behind him and the image before, as different as night and day and yet unbreakably connected.

Janus could feel bile rise in his throat and he barely swallowed it down. “No,” he rasped, “I will continue.”

The image rippled and changed and Janus followed it as it moved across several ice panels until it stopped. Night had fallen and it was raining in her memories. The ruins around her did very little to keep it out. The dark Jé Kinah was slumped in her throne, rain trickling down her hair and cheek, her eyes fluttering in strange dreams with the whites of her eyes showing.

Abruptly someone burst in through the front doors, sodden to the skin and half collapsed on the stone floor. Jé Kinah’s eyes flew open and she stood up in an unnatural way like a puppet on strings and glared at the intruder who flicked back his hood to reveal straw blonde hair and blue eyes. He looked around in relief before spying her striding towards him.

“Pardon my intrusion but door was open.” He said apologetically, brushing off the water from his cloak.

“What are you doing here?”

“It’s raining out there so I thought…”

“You thought you would enter the lair of the dragon!”

The young man looked around. “Dragon?” He asked with a rueful sigh. “That would be my luck. Lost and stumbling into the lair of the dragon.” There was strange element of mirth in his voice that did not fit his surroundings. “Turn right at the crossroads and left at the forest. That’s what I did. At least that’s what I thought I did…but I obviously didn’t do because I’m here and not there…”

“Enough!” Jé Kinah screamed, flinging her arms wide. The castle was bottom lit by the ever glowing lava and it cast an eerie glow around her…and the shadow of a dragon against the wall. “Where do you hail from sir knight?”

The young man snorted then doubled over in a belly laugh. “Me! A knight!” He wiped the tears away. “Wait til I tell my brother someone thought I was a knight. My name is Luka. And I’m no one’s knight.”

Jé Kinah hesitated. “You have not come to slay the dragon?”

Luka shrugged. “I was just looking for somewhere dry to spend the night.”

“And I suppose the princess in the tower means nothing to you, that you haven’t come to profess true, undying love for her?”

“I thought the castle was deserted,” he insisted, “and as if a princess would ever love me?”

That was true enough. He was hardly a handsome specimen, his straw like hair plastered down over his high brow and his posture was that of a farmer whose back was bent from day to day chores. His hands were large and calloused and his clothes were worn and patched and fitted poorly.

“Then it is unfortunate for you that you have stumbled upon this castle and the doom that lies within,” Jé Kinah’s veins became as black as night and her hands hooked and clawed as her transformation began, “because I am hungry and your blood with sake my thirst!”

Luka seemed too simple for the deadliness of his situation to have dawn. He stared at Jé Kinah as she began to transform then said,

“Raw?”

Jé Kinah stopped and tilted her head. “What?”

“You would eat me raw?”

“I only eat raw meat.”

Luka shrugged. “Begging your pardon because you probably know best…but raw? That’s no way to eat meat.”

Jé Kinah bristled angrily. “You think you could do better?”

“I ain’t my mother but she taught me well.”

Jé Kinah shuddered, her anger giving way to a tiny hint of amusement.

KILL HIM QUICK!

Janus jumped out of his skin at the demonic voice that caused the ice around him to tremble. He watched the dark Jé Kinah turned her head to one side and hiss, “He just wants somewhere to sleep.”

HE IS A MAN AND DESERVES TO DIE!

“But he has not come in the name of love.”

HE WILL ONLY BRING YOU SORROW!

“I will kill him before that happens.” Jé Kinah looked at Luka who had watched the one sided exchange with an open face, as though a person talking to themselves was perfectly normal. “Cook for me unlucky traveller.”

Luka gave a lopsided grin and opened up his bag and dumped the contents out onto the ground, fishing around in the random odds and ends for his pots and pans and his bag of food. “You won’t regret this miss! I will make you a feast!”

What he made was hardly a feast by any standards but it was tastefully seasoned and he gave Jé Kinah the nicest parts of the rabbit he had packed in salt in his bag as well as some chopped vegetables and even some cheese.

“It had been years since I had tasted anything other than flesh.” The Jé Kinah in the ice behind Janus said and he looked at her, feeling his stomach heave at the thought. “I had forgotten what food tasted like.”

Janus swallowed with difficulty and looked back at the scene playing out before him.

The dark Jé Kinah cast her plate aside. “…very well…you may stay…one night…but I will probably eat you in the morning.”

“Then I’d best get a goodnight sleep.” Luka smiled and took up his bedroll. He laid it out in what remained of the kitchen that was behind the main hall and fell asleep happily.

“I honestly thought I would wake and find he had fled during the night.” Jé Kinah said quietly.

“Were you in earnest? About eating him?” Janus asked despite not really wanting to know the answer. He saw the haunted look in her eyes and flinched.

He walked along the ice panels to where a new scene unfolded, Jé Kinah’s reflection following him. He saw Luka working away to clean the kitchen and somewhat tidy the destroyed utensils. His meagre provisions went on the shelves and he bundled his bedroll and clothes in a corner. He actually looked around with satisfaction then set about mending a broom so he could start the arduous task of sweeping the castle free of the ash.

“I did not pay him any attention. He just cleaned up the kitchen and then moved on to the rest of the castle as if it were the most natural thing in the world.”

Janus shook his head. Luka had to be a simpleton indeed if the precarious nature of his situation had yet to dawn. “Why did you not eat him?” He asked, barely able to squeeze the words out.

“I made a vow to only destroy those who came in the foolish name of love. Those were the men I destroyed.” Jé Kinah looked at Luka as he pottered about the strange reflection of her memories. “This man was a fool…but he did not come for the reasons that everyone else did. And while I was in my elvish form I could make rational decisions like that.”

“What is rational about eating people?” Janus snapped before he had the presence of mind to curb his words.

Jé Kinah was not offended, only sad. “Nothing.”

Janus’ heart hardened towards her. She made no defence for her actions and he felt no inclination to do so for her. He saw Luka look around at the castle and nod, happy with his work. Night was falling so he cooked for them again and then went to sleep in the kitchen while the dark Jé Kinah reclined on the throne, never truly resting.

“See, now he is leaving.” Janus remarked as night transitioned into day and Luka pulled his pack on his back and headed out the front gates.

“He only went to the village to buy food. He came back with a couple of goats and so much food his pack nearly crushed him.”

In her memories Luka trotted in to the castle and held on tight to the goats that bleated at Jé Kinah who eyed them with a slit gaze.

“Why didn’t he leave?”

“I honestly do not know,” Jé Kinah shook her head, “and it was not as if I was lonely for I never spoke to him no matter how much he chatted to me. I did not find him annoying. He was simply there…one day he was not, the next he was and…he stayed.”

Janus frowned. “The moment he sees your true nature he will flee.”

“And so he should.” Jé Kinah replied and the reflections rippled and moved on, Janus following the panels until an image of a knight riding in to the castle appeared. There was a brief amount of dialogue that could not be heard in which the dark Jé Kinah began to crack and change, wings sprouting from her back and her mouth opening unnaturally wide, displaying all her jagged teeth. In a silent play he lowered his lance and the visor on his helmet and charged. The battle was short lived and very bloody…at least on the part of the knight. Janus tore his eyes away to look at the reflection of Jé Kinah whose reflection always stood behind him. He was surprised to see that, instead of watching the horrific slaughter, her eyes were fixated on Luka who was standing in the doorway of the kitchen, cloth in hand and eyes wide open.

After the dragon swallowed the last of the knight, tossing the armour aside in a loud clatter, it flew around the castle several times, stretching both its wings and its voice. It dove down around the village and scattered the people before going back up to the castle and clambering inside, bones and sinews snapping back into formation until the dark Jé Kinah dragged herself from the muck and filth, her clothes barely clinging to her and she fell onto the throne, her thin chest heaving, her form still casting the shadow of a dragon across the ground.

Luka stepped forward once he was sure she was back to herself again.

“Was it necessary to kill him?” He asked. “You could have just frightened him.” She glowered at him. “He only came to rescue the princess. Is that so worthy of death in your eyes?”

She did not answer him and Luka sighed and went back to the kitchen.

“Now he will leave.” Janus remarked.

“No. He did not.”

“The man is a fool.”

“Yes. Yes he was.” Yet the way she said it, Janus wondered if Jé Kinah thought the complete opposite.

As Luka laid out food for Jé Kinah on a table he had hammered together from salvaged wood he looked up.

“You must have reasons. Everyone does. And knights kill dragons. You are a dragon. You want to live. It is you or them.” He ran his hands through his hair and it stuck up in all directions. “Maybe, next time a knight comes…could I speak to them first?”

The dark Jé Kinah’s eyes barely flickered in his direction and then, ever so slightly, she nodded. Luka seemed to take this as approval and beamed all over his idiotic face.

“Sometimes there were months in between knights or princes challenging me.” Jé Kinah murmured. “Even seasons. But he never left.”

“I cannot tell if you are disappointed or relieved about that.” Janus baited her, his disgust far too near the surface to be completely disguised. Jé Kinah looked at him sadly.

“I cannot tell if you are asking about the killing…or that Luka stayed.”

Janus paused then saw a new challenger enter the castle. He looked vaguely familiar with his dark curly hair and hazel eyes. The manner with which he held himself was reminiscent of someone Janus had seen and spoken to but he shrugged it off that the man was clearly a prince and that was what was familiar about him.

“I am Prince Rupert. I am the son of King Charles and Queen Amelia and I have come to challenge the beast that keeps the princess captive in yon tower.”

In the reflected memories Luka hurried out in front of Jé Kinah who had stood in her unsettling puppet like way when the prince had entered the hall. Luka put himself between the prince and the dark elf and bowed.

“Noble prince. I wish to give you fair warning before you attempt to do what it is you are about to.”

“Do not try to sway me from slaying the beast and setting the princess free.”

“Noble prince, I have seen this dragon and I know that it has never lost. It is not like anything you have ever faced and should you stand before it, you will die. Please, turn around and leave and forget this place.”

“I, Prince Rupert, am no coward and as the remaining son of King Charles and Queen Amelia, it is my duty to make the land safe from all vile and demonic creatures.”

Luka sighed. “Then there is nothing more to say. Farewell prince. My conscience is clear as is hers.”

He scurried back into the kitchen and Janus saw a terrible grin on the dark Jé Kinah’s face as the prince rode in further. Janus turned, unable to watch yet another slaughter and this time he saw that the fair Jé Kinah, the one reflected behind him, had also looked away. She bit her bottom lip as though she could still taste the prince’s flesh and they both flinched when he screamed…and then was silenced.

Jé Kinah looked back, deathly white. Janus could see the memories disturbed her. “Did Luka do that to every challenger?”

“Every single one.” She whispered.

“Did any turn back?”

“No.”

Janus sighed. “At least he tried to stop the slaughter.”

The reflection rippled and changed to show the mountain covered in thick snow. While its lofty girth was often coated in snow, during winter it was drenched in it. Enormous snow drifts of thirty and forty feet kept the two occupants of the ruined castle inside, unless one of them grew wings. The dragon would go hunting and bring back its kill so that Luka could prepare it in the kitchen, along with the provisions he’d been storing up while the weather had been warm enough to walk to the village. Despite the prison like circumstance, there was one consolation.

The snow kept anyone from challenging the dragon.

Snow the weeks passed by with Luka talking in his roundabout way without getting, or needing it seemed, a response from the dark elf.

One day, as winter finally succumbed to spring and the snow began to melt, Luka laid out the last of his supplies on the table before his dark mistress. They were dinning on a rather skinny goat the dragon had caught and killed the day before.

“I think I can walk to the village tomorrow.” He remarked. “It’ll be good to get some fresh supplies. I imagine we’ll be having visitors again soon.” He munched on a stale chunk of bread and looked around. “I bet this place was magnificent when it was first built. Wish I could see it. Still, fixed up some of those doors and I put planks over that hole near the latrine. Don’t want to fall through that on a dark night into the volcano.” He chatted away, asking questions that never required an answer. Which was well because he never got one. “I’ve been thinking. You weren’t born an elf dragon. You must’ve done something or something must’ve been done to you. It was a pretty powerful something because when you change, you’re hide is impenetrable …and nothing can kill you, is that right? Not going to tell me? Well that’s fair enough. And you have nothing to fear from me witch. I’m not clever enough to figure it out.”

Jé Kinah chewed limply and it was difficult to tell if she had heard him or not.

“Now, about the princess…” Abruptly her eyes flickered and they looked at him even though her body didn’t move. Luka was unaware of her sudden attention. “She’s not eating the food I take to her.” Jé Kinah stopped chewing. “I know my cooking isn’t as good as what she might have had wherever she came from but…surely she must eat something.”

“You went into the tower!” Jé Kinah’s voice was as hard as a slap and Luka looked up, wide eyed and almost entirely unaware that his life now lay in the balance.

“Oh no. I assumed the door was locked, as all towers holding princesses usually are.” He said with a light air. “There’s a flap at the bottom and I just push a plate through. But every time I take it out…it hasn’t been touched.”

Janus felt his skin prickle as he watched the dark Jé Kinah’s face become grim.

“And what of it?”

“Well…you’re clearly all about slaying knights and princes coming to rescue her. But it ain’t much good if she’s dead…or escaped.” Luka frowned. “I could ask at the village…”

Janus swallowed, seeing anger and a touch of fear streak across Jé Kinah’s face. He turned back to the fair reflection over his shoulder. “What is going through your mind?”

She opened her mouth to reply when the voice of the demon grabbed hold of Janus’ soul and shook it hard.

KILL HIM! KILL HIM NOW!

“He knows nothing!” The dark Jé Kinah hissed. “What would that accomplish?”

FEAST ON HIS FLESH! DRINK HIS BLOOD! CRUSH HIS BONES!

Jé Kinah gave a shudder and her blackened nails scraped the arms of the throne as though she was trying to keep the beast within contained. Luka kept working but his inquiries had clearly made her nervous.

“I do not understand.” Evander was at a loss.

“There is no princess.” Jé Kinah explained. “The tower is empty. I kept the lanterns lit so that people would think someone needed rescuing. But it was all a ruse. I had nothing against the innocent girls hoping for love and freedom. My vengeance was upon all men who claimed true love.”

“And if Luka was spreading rumours, ignorantly of course, that there was no princess…” Janus nodded.

“I could not kill him. I needed him to go back to the village and say that the princess was eating again, that she was alive and needed rescuing.” Jé Kinah waved her hand and the image before them pulled back so that Janus could see the castle from the back. “I could not risk Luka seeing me take the food away so I climbed up the outside of the tower to the room at the top.”

Janus watched with clenched hands as the small image of Jé Kinah clambered up the tower, bathed in the red hue of the bubbling volcano, using footholds and handholds that were invisible to him, to reach the room and climb inside. She grabbed the plate and flung its contents out the window then climbed out again. She leapt into the air and as she fell, sprouted wings and soared down to the castle, landing hard and curling up on the throne as if she had never left.

“I did that every day.” Jé Kinah said softly. “Every morning he took food up, I would climb up the tower, get rid of the food then fly down again. I eventually made cloth wings that joined from my sleeves to my dress so that I could drift down, using the hot air currents to slow my descent rather than partially transform. Changing was never…pleasant.”

“It seems like an elaborate deception for something so insignificant.”

“But it worked. Luka was delighted that the princess was eating and he trotted off to the village with reports of her health.” Jé Kinah bit her bottom lip. “How could I have been so blind?”

“He was a spy for a knight perhaps?” Janus mused. “No one could be that simple on purpose.”

They both watched as the memories shifted again with Luka humming to himself as he swept away the eternal ash that covered the ground from yet another failed attempt to rescue the princess. The dragon had a terrible poisoned barb at the end of its tail, much like a scorpion. When it struck its victim, they disintegrated into ash. So what Luka was sweeping out through a hole in the wall was the remnants of a knight. All armour was piled up in a corner and Luka sold pieces of it in order to buy food for them.

“Is she mute?” He asked abruptly and the dark Jé Kinah looked up with mostly white showing in her eyes. “The princess. She never speaks. My sisters…they never shut up. Always talking about something. I thought that maybe she is mute. Or maybe she has forgotten how to speak.” Luka paused, deep concern on his face. “Maybe birds are eating the food and she is actually dead! Oh dear…Should I check?”

“No!” Jé Kinah snapped out of her coma like state. “Leave her alone!”

Luka bowed his head, nodded and kept working but his inquiries had clearly made her nervous.

KILL HIM BEFORE HE RUINS EVERYTHING! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!

“Rumours of the princess are spreading! More men come than ever before. If I kill him…” She sent Luka a look that he missed as he whistled and put a chair upright. “He is more useful alive than dead.”

HAVE YOU LOST YOUR NERVE WITCH?!

“Shut it!” She snarled. The imagery pulled away again and showed Jé Kinah scaling the tower. She stood by the door so that she couldn’t be seen as Luka opened the flap and pushed food in. “Thank you.” She said, trying to make her voice light and cheery.

“You are welcome princess!” The joy in Luka’s voice was unmistakable and Janus suspected he skipped and hummed the whole way down the tower steps while Jé Kinah took a flying leap from the tower window and plummeted through the air, landing heavily and slumping in her throne.

“Do not tell me you did that every day?”

“Every day.”

Janus looked at her. “Why?”

“Because…” Jé Kinah sighed. “Because…”

“Just…because?”

“Yes.” She gave a small smile. “He did not ask anything at first, simply bringing food and saying hello. I was lulled into a surreal sense of security because of his ignorance. One time he bid me a ‘good morning’ so I retorted that there was nothing good about living in a tower.” She looked at the memories that changed to show the dark Jé Kinah on one side, Luka on the other and a thick layer of stone between them.

“That is fair enough when one lives in a tower. How long you been here for?”

“I do not know. Forever.”

“Now even I know that’s not true. You’d be an old maid if you’d been in there forever.”

“What difference does the time make? It is a tower. I am in it. Discussion over.”

“And I bet that didn’t discourage him one bit.” Janus felt a twinge of admiration for this strangely simple yet undeterred man that traipsed up and down tower steps every day.

“Not one bit.” Jé Kinah’s eyes were soft yet the corners of her mouth were down.

“Good morning princess.”

“I am tired of all your good.”

“I do apologise but it is sad when one is tired of good.”

“You are such a fool.”

“Yes I am. My mother always said I had a fool’s head but a knight’s heart. I think it is better to be that way than the other. Good day princess.”

“Why did you talk to him?” Janus asked.

“Because I missed talking.” Jé Kinah sighed. “I missed having company. I was so hard and dark and deadly in the castle but, when I was in the tower pretending to be a princess and hiding my face, I was someone else. Someone I had not been in a very long time. And for all his chatter, Luka listened…”

“…the other children. I did not fit in. For some children I was too fast and too clever but for the rest…it was like I had lead weights attached to my feet.”

“Did your parents compare you?”

“Well…no…”

“I think the opinions of mothers and fathers matter most.”

“Children can be cruel.”

“And perhaps you were your own worst enemy?

“Perhaps…”

The image rippled, showing days had passed. Janus frowned, something bothering him about the transitions that he could not put his finger on.

“I will never escape this tower. I will be here forever.” The dark Jé Kinah lamented, flicking pieces of stone across the floor.

“Do not say that milady. One day she will let you go free.”

“You know nothing of the witch that holds me here. Her anger runs deep, like poison in her veins. Her pure form is forever corrupted and there is no forgiveness for one who has destroyed so many happily ever afters. From the very first time she killed a prince, she condemned herself to this life…and me.”

“Weep not milady. I am sure one day her heart will soften.”

“You are mistaken. She has no heart.”

“She does. She does her best to hide it but it is there. One day you will be free…”

“He never gave up and he never missed a day,” Jé Kinah said softly, “and hidden behind that door…I told him things I had never told anyone…”

“…then she died. My own mother died because my father betrayed us.”

“Oh princess…” Luka wept on the other side of the door.

“Do not cry for me Luka. My sins far outweigh my virtues. In fact, I fear I am evil now, through and through.”

“No one can be all bad. There’s good in everyone.”

“Do you honestly believe that?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Can I first ask why it is so hard for you to believe?”

“Personal experience.”

“Then I suppose my answer is the same.”

“Do you not see where I am? Where I have been for years? Do you not know how she has tormented me? How can you say that there is good in her?”

“Because I believe.”

“I could not tell at times if I was talking as the princess or as the dark elf.” Jé Kinah explained. “But Luka never seemed to notice. He would sit there for hours and listen to me, never once judging me. He just…was…”

“You are changing.” Janus suddenly blurted. “Your hair…it is not black anymore, it’s been lightening as the days and weeks pass…and your eyes…there is colour in them again.” He wasn’t looking back at the reflection behind him anymore. He couldn’t take his eyes off the transformation occurring as the memories shifted once again.

“…and then the entire herd of cows got past my makeshift blockade and trampled the newly furrowed earth.” Luka narrated and Jé Kinah held back a laugh beneath her hand. “Of course my brother comes out, ‘You fool Luka! Now look what you’ve done!’, so I said, ‘In truth the cows did it…and what a fine job they did too.’ My brother did not ask me to fix a fence again.”

“Oh dear, Luka.” Jé Kinah chuckled. “You are a bit of a hopeless case.”

“That is very true. But at least I’m happy.”

“And do you miss it, miss your home?”

“Sometimes. I miss the smell of the earth and the warm summer breeze. I miss my mother’s cooking and my brother’s brewed ale.”

“It sounds lovely.”

“You should visit sometime. You know, when you’re rescued.”

“Oh yes. When…”

“You might be too high and mighty by then. After all the wife of a prince or knight doesn’t spend much time with farmers like my family.”

“I promise to visit.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

There came the scraping sound of Luka standing up. “We will have a grand party that day. There will be feasting and dancing and games and music.”

“I look forward to it.”

“I have to be about my chores and I must pay a visit to the village. I will not be back until tomorrow.”

“Talk to you then Luka.”

Jé Kinah could be seen listening to the sound of Luka thumping down the stairs in his clumpy shoes. She couldn’t squelch the smile on her face no matter how she pressed her lips together and bit her lip. With a hint of a giggle she spun around the tower room.

WHAT IS THIS I SEE? THE LITTLE ELF BELIEVES HERSELF TO BE IN LOVE.

Jé Kinah stopped spinning and saw her shadow cast the shape of the dragon against the wall. It leered at her, its forked tongue darting across the stone blocks in a hiss.

YOU ARE MINE SHE-ELF! MINE! AND NO ONE ELSE’S NO MATTER WHAT YOU MAY PRETEND! The shadow snaked around the room, its wings blocking out the reflected light, becoming almost as black as night. ONLY I KNOW THE REAL YOU. ONLY I SEE THE TRUTH, THE DARKNESS IN YOUR HEART.

“There could be more.”

It is possible that the shadow was laughing but it was such a terrible sound that Janus winced and his skin prickled all over. The shadow weaved around her, snickering over her shoulder.

YOU KNOW HE DOES NOT LOVE YOU.

“What do you mean?”

THAT BOY, THAT FLAWED, HUMAN BOY, CARES ONLY FOR THE PRINCESS

“That is I.”

AND HOW, PRAY TELL, WOULD HE FEEL IF HE FOUND OUT THE TRUTH? THAT THE WITCH BELOW AND THE PRINCESS ABOVE WERE ONE AND THE SAME?

Jé Kinah faltered and Janus could see the doubt that she had hidden from. What would Luka do if he knew?

“He would not change.” She said weakly. “He is good and kind.”

HE WILL BETRAY YOU! JUST AS YOUR FATHER DID! ALL HUMAN MEN ARE TREACHEROUS AND DESERVE TO BE PUNISHED!

“Not all!” She cried. “I cannot, will not, believe that lie any more. Yes my father betrayed my mother but I refuse to believe that all men are the same. Luka is not the same.”

CARE TO TEST THAT THEORY? Jé Kinah froze and the dark voice chuckled at her, mocking her. COME, DARK ELF, TEST YOUR CONVICTIONS AND SEE WHETHER THIS THORN IN MY SIDE IS WORTHY OF YOUR AFFECTION.

“And if he is?”

WHAT DO YOU WANT?

Jé Kinah paused, frightened of owning what she had begun to hope for. “I want to be released from my vow.”

Instead of the disappointment and rage she expected, the dragon shadow leered at her.

YOU THINK WHAT AS BEEN DONE CAN DO EASILY BE UNDONE? YOU CAN TRY! AS THE PRINCESS BEG HIM TO FREE YOU AND YOU WILL SEE THAT ABANDONS THE REAL YOU FOR THE ILLUSION OF YOU!

Jé Kinah shivered and Janus groaned. This was going to end badly.

“And if he chooses the princess?” She asked fearfully.

THEN YOU WILL EAT HIM. The dragon shadow began to shrink down, merging with her own. AND WE WILL BE ONE AS WE USED TO BE…NO HUMAN CAN LOVE YOU FOR NO HUMAN’S LOVE IS PURE AND STEADFAST. IN THE END, YOU WILL ALWAYS RETURN TO ME…

“Luka went to the village that day,” Jé Kinah said quietly behind Janus, “and I could not make up my mind what I wanted. Should he never come back, my heart would be crushed. Should he return and reject me for a princess he thinks is fair and pure, my heart would be crushed. And finally, impossibly, should he choose me above all others…” They watched as the once dark Jé Kinah spent an anxious day and night pacing and arranging the armour and then pacing some more.

Her face lit up as she heard the crunch of boots on stone outside the gates and went to her throne and slumped in it.

“I have returned.” Luka announced cheerily. He did not wait for a response. He never got one. “I was going to buy a kid but they were not quite old enough. In a week or two we will have fresh goats milk again and I am going to try my hand at making cheese. The baker’s daughter had a baby boy and there were some wild flowers growing on the path up from the village. I picked them for the princess. I thought they would look nice on her plate. I will take it up once I have made you something to eat.”

Jé Kinah tried not to fidget as Luka cluttered about in the kitchen in his plodding, relaxed manner before emerging.

“This is a nice piece of lamb with a smattering of butter and rosemary. If you like it, I can make it a regular in what I buy. I am going up to the princess now.”

The moment he was out of sight Jé Kinah scampered to the back of the castle and flung herself up the side of the tower. She climbed dangerously fast, the hot air whipping her hair around her face and she was panting by the time she pulled herself through the window. Luka was a slow walker so he had yet to arrive. She had scant seconds to finally decide what it was she was going to do.

The flap opened and a metal plate of bread, meat, cheese, tomatoes and a small posy of flowers appeared.

“Good morning princess.”

“Good morning Luka.” Jé Kinah gulped, the words she needed to say trapped in her breast.

“I hope you like tomatoes. I was able to buy some from the pig farmer. They look delicious.”

“I am sure they will be delightful.” Jé Kinah’s palms were sweating like mad she was shaking violently.

“Well, if that is all princess…”

“Thank you…” Jé Kinah heard his footsteps start to recede down the stairs. “Wait…just wait…”

There was an awful pause when she thought she might have missed her chance and then there was another awful moment when she realised that Luka had turned around and come back.

“Yes princess?”

“Run away with me.” Jé Kinah blurted. “You and I, we will leave this place together. No knight is ever coming to free me and I do not want him to. You are the one who has kept me sane and made this terrible life bearable. Please Luka, take me with you to your family’s farm. I want to smell the earth and feel the rain. I want to be with you.”

“Princesss…”

“All you have to do is open the door.” Jé Kinah pressed her forehead against it and closed her eyes. “Just open this door and I will know the truth.”

She heard the creak and knew Luka was leaning against the door. All he had to do was put his hand to the ring, turn it and pull…and she would know the truth.

“Forgive me princess…but I cannot.”

“What?”

“The mistress has been kind to me. She could have eaten me but she allowed me to stay. I cannot betray her trust.”

“But…she is evil!” Jé Kinah exclaimed, her heart beginning to race with excitement. “She has killed many men and done terrible, despicable things! She cannot be forgiven!”

“That is not true. I forgive her.”

Jé Kinah’s body was rushed with adrenalin and she gasped, frozen to the spot and almost convulsing with joy.

“He chose me!” She exclaimed then sprinted to the window, diving out of it. “He chose me!”

Her body went into a controlled dive and she sailed towards the main hall, angling for her descent to come through one of the ruined windows. If she had not been blinded by joy she might have seen that her shadow which followed her down, was no longer that of a dragon. It was her own.

She skidded onto the loose gravel and half jogged into the hall. Luka emerged from the bottom of the tower and saw her standing there, her face caressed with a beaming smile and her arms outstretched. For a strange moment they were statues, staring at each other until Luka’s face broke out into a lopsided smile and he came towards her.

Jé Kinah’s arms were out, running towards the panel of ice and Janus, even though he knew she was running in her memories towards Luka, could not stop himself from instinctively opening his arms to embrace her. Suddenly she stopped, her eyes wide and her mouth open, fear contorting her face.

“Behind you!” She screamed and Janus spun around and saw the image of the dragon climbing up the image of the castle in the panel of ice behind him. It had no features like it when it transformed out of Jé Kinah. In this strange contorted version, it was black and flat, like a shadow. There was no depth, no detail. Just matt black terror with two red eyes and a terrible red glow in its belly.

WHO ARE YOU TO DEFY ME?

With no other recourse Janus dragged out his sword and smashed it through the ice, sending shower of ice splinters flying then turned as he heard Jé Kinah and Luka yell in fear on yet another panel of ice. He could see the dragon descending upon them and watched helplessly as they dove for cover. It shouldn’t have had mass or sharp edges yet it pounded the floor of the main hall, screeching with a sound that could paralyse a man with fear.

“Jé Kinah look out!” Janus cried as the tail of the dragon swept past them, Jé Kinah pushing Luka out of the way behind the throne. She dashed, going into a slide and skidding right underneath the dragon’s belly as it stormed across the hall, through the window opened and clambered up onto what remained of the roof.

WRETCHED ELF! I SHOULD HAVE SLAUGHTERED YOUR KIND WHEN I HAD THE CHANCE!

Jé Kinah made it to where the armour was piled up. She pushed her way through the breastplates and helmets and finally found two swords. She spun around and saw the dragon’s mouth coming towards her, burning red and smoking like a furnace. Without a split second to hesitate she grabbed hold of a shield and hunkered down as the dragon howled fire at her. Over and over it blasted her location until the shield became unbearable to hold.

“Hey!” Luka sprinted out of his hiding place. “Hey!”

He froze on the spot as the dragon ceased its attack on Jé Kinah and turned its bizarrely flat face towards him.

YOU…

“Luka run!” Jé Kinah screamed and hurled her swords at the dragon. They glanced off its black hide without leaving so much as a dent. Going faster than she had gone before Jé Kinah took up a flail, which comprised of a spiked metal ball on the end of a chain attached to a handle and tied rope to it. She swung it around and around, watching as the dragon thundered down the hall, heading straight for Luka. She let go of the flail and it soared through the air, wrapping itself around one of the black wings…and held tight.

The dragon screeched and twisted to snap at her but Jé Kinah was already sprinting towards it and used its long tail to start running up its back.

“Look out!” Luka cried and Jé Kinah leapt aside, feeling the wind of the scorpion tail as it jammed down where she was a second earlier. In her hands was the other end of the rope and she leapt from the dragon’s back and threw the rope. It landed beyond her reach and she limped towards it, knowing that she was going too slow.

The dragon turned, dragging the clutter of chain and rope with it and glared at her.

I GAVE YOU POWER! It surged with mighty indignation. I GAVE YOU VENGEANCE! I GAVE YOU EVERYTHING YOU CRAVED AND YET YOU CHOSE HIM OVER ME!

Jé Kinah half stood, pretending her ankle was worse than it was. “I was a fool.” She shot at it. “And you used me.”

I AM YOUR CREATOR! I MADE YOU! Fire and smoke billowed at where she had stood but Jé Kinah was already sprinting for the end of the rope. She grabbed it, skidded and sprinted beneath the dragon’s belly once more. It bellowed, suddenly realising what she was trying to do and began to climb up onto the roof of the castle. Jé Kinah was dragged up with the rope and abruptly found herself within its claws. The dragon sneered at her and she found herself face to face with the futility of her attempt to slay this beast…just as many princes and knights had discovered in years past.

I WILL FIND ANOTHER. THERE ARE MILLIONS OF SOULS TO BE CORRUPTED, HARVESTED AND CONSUMED. I WILL HAVE MY FILL AND DEVOUR THIS EARTH! BUT YOU WILL NOT LIVE TO SEE IT…MY PRECIOUS LITTLE HALF CASTE.

“No…” Luka stood in the middle of the main hall, looking up in helpless abandon. He cared nothing for the danger of his situation. He only cared for the woman clutched within the dragon’s claws.

The dragon turned Jé Kinah around to face Luka, her legs against the upper beams of the roof remains.

BUT FIRST, YOU WILL KNOW THE PAIN THAT ALL THOSE PRINCES AND KNIGHTS BEFORE YOU KNEW. It turned its demon eyes onto the young, fair haired innocent below them. DIE!

“No!” Jé Kinah screamed as the dragon’s tail whipped out and struck Luka in the chest, lifting him up off the ground. Luka looked up at Jé Kinah, stunned at what had happened to him

Jé Kinah looked down at him as the dragon began to laugh and laugh…and laugh.

Her face twisted into a terrible snarl and she brought her legs up against the beam, drawing the rope tighter and tighter. With all her might she braced herself…and pushed. As she pushed out, the rope tensed, dragging the dragon’s wings closer and closer to its body. She heard it snarl and felt it shift, flicking its tail so that Luka was shaken free and landed near the throne. Though it scratched at the rope, trying to free its body, she pulled up her legs again and pushed with all her might. The dragon’s weight crushed several window frames and the beams splintered and snapped, meaning nothing was holding either of them to the castle any more.

And they fell.

The dragon roared and tried to free itself but Jé Kinah never lost her head once, winding the rope tight around its leg while the belly of the lava pit flew up to meet them. Then she pushed off the dragon’s body. It was far heavier than she and hit the lava with a boiling crash. An enormous billow of heat rose up from the lava and Jé Kinah opened her makeshift wings wide, caught the gust and soared upwards, narrowly missing the tail of the dragon as it whipped past her.

Its screams followed her all the way up until the gust landed her at the very edge of the plateau that the castle was built upon. Jé Kinah gripped hard and her feet scrambled to find holds to keep her from falling. She let out the breath she was holding and looked over her shoulder at the blackened, thrashing demonic figure still attempting to free itself from the inevitable.

YOU WILL NEVER BE FREE OF ME!

Her hair was wild and her eyes were wide as she felt fear shake her.

YOU MADE A VOW! I WILL RETURN IN YOU! YOU WILL NEVER ESCAPE ME!

Finally it disappeared beneath the surging lava that bubbled and raged with its new fuel. Jé Kinah gasped and climbed up over the edge of the plateau to grab hold of a broken piece of wall and fall into the castle. She was on her feet in an instant and ran down the length of the great hall to where Luka’s body lay.

“No. No Luka.” She cried, scooping his bloody torso up and cradling his head. “Look at me. Please Luka.”

His blue eyes pried open and they rested on her anxious, ash smudged face…and smiled.

“Princess…you’ve finally come down out of your tower.”

Jé Kinah swallowed. “No Luka, I am not the princess. I am…” She stopped when she saw the look in his eyes and the way he reached up and gently tugged on her pale hair. “You…you knew?”

Luka shuddered, the poison taking effect. Already there was a dark grey mark around the bloody wound and it was spreading.

“You know I was playing the role of the princess?” Jé Kinah gasped. “Why did you not say anything?”

“It was the only way I could get you to talk to me.” Luka said with such simplistic logic that Jé Kinah couldn’t contain herself anymore and tears began to streak down her face. “Oh no…look at this…you were not meant to cry.”

His calloused hand touched her face, smearing tears and ash together with his thumb. “I cannot help it. I love you and now I am going to lose you.”

“Can…cannot change…what has happened…” Luka convulsed and Jé Kinah held him tight as his face began to go grey and his skin began to flake away. “But I got to fall in love with you.” He turned his eyes upwards as his body began to disintegrate into ash. “Thank goodness I got lost…”

Jé Kinah sobbed as he disappeared into an armful of ash. The winds quickly swept the ash away, scattering his remains over countless leagues and leaving Jé Kinah with barely a handful.

Her weeping echoed off the walls of the castle, off the ice panels that her memories were trapped in and embedded themselves into the heart of Janus. Her tears soaked into his heart and that which had turned to stone long ago cracked, twisted and suddenly burst into pulsing, warm flesh…and its pounding beat caused him to mourn with Jé Kinah’s reflection, together yet entirely apart.

Janus reached out and touched the panel, his tears blurring the figure kneeling there, cradling the space that contained the man she loved. The ice creaked beneath his fingers and shifted, turning sideway and suddenly Janus stood facing the centre of the maze. It was a circular space with a strange sunken puzzle in the centre. But he could hardly look at it at all when he saw that, at the opposite side of the circle, was an upright slab of ice on top of several snow steps. And trapped in that ice was Jé Kinah.

Janus stumbled towards her, his eyes that were red from weeping taking in her strange appearance.

She was not the dark Jé Kinah from the memories. Nor was she the pure elf he remembered her to be. This Jé Kinah was a twisted mix of the two. Her white gold hair, singed at the edges, was spread out around her face as though it was drifting in water and scales went up the sides of her face and receded into her crown. The scales travelled down her neck and breasts to disappear into her tunic. Her left hand was unblemished and pure while her right was scarred with dragon scales and her fingers were claws with dark green chipped nails. And sprouting from her shoulders were two enormous wings. They were smaller than the dragon’s had been in full transformation yet these wings that clung onto the elf’s body far eclipsed any others that had soared over the earth before.

He reached out and touched the thick layer of ice that separated himself from her.

“Oh Jé Kinah…forgive me.” He said, his voice breaking as the realisation of all she had been through, of all he had been through, bore down on his shoulders. “Forgive me…” His heart, which was beating hard, could also hurt and the pain, the constricting in his chest caused him to beat his fist against it, tears running freely down his face. “Forgive me. Oh Jé Kinah…” He fell to his knees, still keeping a hand against the ice and beating his chest with the other.

His tears stuck the stone steps but instead of freezing, they took on an almost metallic sheen and began to ripple and down the steps, collecting together as they went, forming a large mass of tears. Janus couldn’t see them. He had no idea that his tears were about to unlock the prison.

The tears trickled into the sunken puzzle and surged around the pieces, striking several darker sections and bringing them to life. The ice puzzle cracked and moved, slid across and around, sections coming together while others shifted apart and rebuilt themselves.

The noise finally broke through Janus’ sorrow and he looked up to see the word ETERNITY forming in the puzzle. As the last piece clicked into place in the Y there was a sound like the earth had just cracked in half. The entire plateau shuddered and quaked, finally settling down in an eerie stillness that comes before the storm. Janus stood up and looked around…then saw a crack forming in Jé Kinah’s ice prison. It splintered across the perfect surface of the ice, marring the vision he had of Jé Kinah within. He flinched when he heard more cracks appearing and only just had the presence of mind to duck as the ice shattered.

The moment his body stopped being assaulted by the frozen crystals he looked up and saw the freed form of Jé Kinah swaying ever so gently. Her wings had collapsed to the ground, like the sails on a ship without a breeze to fill them. Her eyes were still closed and her eyelashes were delicately frosted with tiny snowflakes. He leapt up and caught her as she slumped down, cool to the touch but undoubtedly alive.

“Jé Kinah?” He called gently, brushing some hair from her face. “Can you hear me?”

Her eyelashes fluttered and finally a breath of warm air came from her pale lips. “Luka?”

Janus closed his eyes and swallowed. “Jé Kinah…it is I…Evander.”

Her eyes opened and those beautiful pale green irises rested on his face. “Evander?” The way she said his name caused his heart to constrict again. “Where is Luka? He was just here, I am sure.”

Evander winced. “Luka… Luka is…” He saw Jé Kinah’s eyes study him. They opened wide and she stood up on wobbly feet, shaking her head and backing away. “Jé Kinah…”

“No…no he was just here…He was just here!” She cried. “Please…please…” She grasped the vial around her neck and tears began to swell in her eyes. “No. No. No.” Her hand clapped over her mouth and Evander could only watch as the terrible memory of Luka’s death was relived once more.

She stumbled away from him, her hand pressed towards him to keep him at back. Suddenly she stood up straight, threw her face to the sky, spread her wings and screamed. The sound shattered several panels and Evander clapped his hands over his ears. Jé Kinah sagged and then slumped on the snow stairs. A shudder ran through the ground.

“He is dead.” She whispered.

“If I could spare you this pain…” Evander knelt down beside her and she looked up at him as if seeing him for the first time.

“Evander…” He smiled at her voice. “What are you doing here?”

“I have come to rescue you from the Snow Queen’s prison. Don’t you remember? You were trapped in ice.”

Jé Kinah stared at him with wide eyes…then suddenly her brow furrowed and her mouth became hard.

“What have you done!” She cried, standing up.

“What do you mean what have I done? I have rescued you!”

“You fool!” She yelled. “It is a trick! She wanted to free me. Now she has the entirety of her power to wipe out humanity!”

The ground rumbled again and Evander felt like it dropped a foot in height. He looked around and saw the panels shaking and ringing out against the force of what was happening. Some of them were melting, streams of water pouring off them, pooling into the cracks that were quickly forming…and there was a hot glow burning beneath them.

Jé Kinah leapt back up the stairs and grabbed her satchel which practically fell to pieces from years of exposure. She drew out a long leather wrap, grabbed Evander by the scruff of the neck and they began to run.

“Hurry!” She cried as the ice began to slide away from beneath their feet, falling into the ugly red, angry hole that was getting wider and wider. Evander risked a look back and saw the maze collapse into the volcano that had been sealed beneath ice for years. Bursts of skin peeling steam erupted from all around them, breaking through the rapidly thinning ice in deadly numbers. They aimed for the castle which was the closest piece of land, their sprint beginning to falter as the ice became slush that trapped their legs and sucked them down.

“Hurry!” Jé Kinah launched herself for the top of the stone stairs and clambered up. She turned, grasped Evander’s arm as he did the same and they both fell backwards into the castle. From the doorway they could see the ice seal bubble and sink, countless water hitting the lava and now billows of steam were shooting up. “Oh my…” She looked at Evander. “Sealed for so many years it will erupt!”

“We have to move now!” Evander hauled her to her feet and they sprinted through the castle, rivers cascading down around them as the beautiful archways and windows melted in terrifying swiftness. “Look out!” A chandelier broke free and smashed into the ground before them and then one immediately behind them. They burst out of the castle onto stone as the building collapsed in on itself with a roar, the last remnants of the stone disintegrating as the lava began to rise, furious at having been locked down for so long.

Jé Kinah looked down the mountain side while Evander looked back at the snarling volcano.

“We have to run.”

“Outrun a volcano?” Jé Kinah exclaimed.

“Well what’s your idea then?” Evander barked then eyed her wings. “Can you fly us out of here?”

“They will not carry both of us.” It was hard to think with the earth’s blood bubbling and surging to the surface, angry as hell and a hundred times as hot. “Give me your shield!” She put it on the ground so that the front was on the stone. “Sit.” Evander did so, shuffling forwards as Jé Kinah stepped on the back. “You will have to steer. Lean to change direction.”

“Just go!” Evander roared and Jé Kinah opened her wings.

An explosion behind them threw chunks of stone and fireballs at them, the heat filling her wings and thrusting them into the air before they came crashing down on the earth. Their speed was not fantastic to start with but as their descent lengthened, the world turned into a blur. Evander thought his teeth would fall out of his head as they bumped and banged over rocks before hitting the deeper snow banks. Just as they reached the first ridgeline, the volcano blew.

The unbelievably enormous cloud mushroomed up from the mouth of the volcano, as dark a grey as it could be before being black. Its mass was broken up with house sized chunks of fiery red rock missiles that whistled through the air, their shriek heard leagues away. Another explosion ripped through the mountain, tearing chunks out of the sides of it and causing the earth to shudder. Fireworks of deadly red streaked across the sky, raining upon the mountainside, setting fire to anything that would burn. Finally the last explosion sent out a shockwave that flattened trees and houses, blew snow in all directions and completely changed the mountain’s landscape forever.

The Snow Queen, who had built herself a platform of ice over an expanse of trees, looked out at the mountain as it very nearly destroyed itself. She and her army were far enough from it that its destruction would not reach them yet the sight caused her soldiers to flinch, as if ready to run.

“Hold your lines!” Goblins and Minotaur barked as harpies flew overhead, snapping at the heels of anyone foolish enough to run. “Hold your lines!”

A werewolf approached her position, half coming up the stairs, clinging to the slippery ice with its claws.

“Your fortress is destroyed.” It snarled. “What do we do now?”

The Snow Queen waited for a moment, her hand pressed against her breast. She was adorned in battle ready steel and ice, her dark curls twisted with streaks of snow and a train of snowflakes flowing out behind her. She was both beautiful and terrible to behold as she opened her blue eyes and looked down at herself.

“I am still here.” She whispered and then her mouth curled into a terrible grin.

“What do we do now?” The werewolf demanded again.

“Now…we burn the last dregs of humanity from the face of the earth!” She raised her arms above her head, spires of winter winds erupting from her hands that churned the clouds so that anything white and innocent was blended into dark grey. Lightning rippled across the darkened expanse and snow immediately began to fall heavily. As the Snow Queen laughed she pushed the snow before them, coating the ground in thick white before she stepped off her platform. A wave of ice and snow rippled impossibly up from the ground and caught her with barely a jolt in her step and in this manner she began to walk before the army, waves following her, creating ridges of ice.

“We will have war!”

The army, which was like charred black leaves against the landscape of white, roared their approval and marched forward toward their prey.

The Snow Queen watched them move on and spared a brief glance backwards. “Your move. Can you stop me before you become me?”

Dominique De St Croix, upon a large white stallion, rode up to the front of the lines of the human army. By his side were Sir Philip, Prince Niccolo and the former King Frederik also on horseback. Walking beside them was Maja, several of her daughters and Marjellan.

De St Croix held up his hand for them to stop and they watched as the mountain seemed to tear itself apart. Even from this distance they could see the destruction the volcano was wrecking upon the land.

“What does that mean?” Sir Philip asked. “Did Janus succeed or fail?”

De St Croix didn’t have an answer for them. He looked back at the army behind him that was clearly hesitating, not sure if the volcano erupting was a good or a bad omen.

“Count.” Frederik nodded. “Look.”

They turned back to the front and saw, like ants swarming out of an anthill, the army of mythical, grotesque and deformed creatures pouring over the hills in front of them. They surged as one and De St Croix barely restrained a shudder of horror at the snarling, festering beasts that leered at them, holding fast across the low valley floor.

“Dear God…we are outnumbered ten to one.”

And as if their numbered weren’t bad enough, from behind the enemy’s lines rolled frozen ice waves, frost blue with snow white tips. Standing upon the crests was the Snow Queen herself, resplendent in all her bitter cold glory.

“We’re all going to die!”

“I don’t want to be eaten!”

“The men are about to break.” Philip remarked over the rising hysteria.

De St Croix turned his stallion around, Philip and Frederik following him and they cantered up and down the front lines. “Men of the earth!” De St Croix called out, his toned voice capturing their attention. “Fear not the army before you! What you must fear is living in secret! ‘iding in ‘oles! Constantly running with terror as your companion as you wait for the enemy to take your loved ones from you! If you do not stand now, any ‘ope, any light of our existence is snuffed out before it ‘as ‘ad a chance to shine!”

He turned his horse’s head and cantered back again.

“One day the night will come. One day the end will be and the darkness will take our lives. But not today! Today we stand in the gap and declare that we choose life!”

The men roared, their hearts and spirits buoyed by his inspiration and his conviction. De St Croix gazed over them and lifted his sword high.

“We choose life!”

Jé Kinah and Evander were both yelling at the top of their lungs. Evander was being hit by every spray of snow and many twigs and small stones flung up into his face. Jé Kinah’s wings felt like they were being ripped from her shoulders as they barely controlled their descent at speeds neither of them thought was possible. There was no time to think, no time to consider the consequences of left or right. There was only instinct, the will to survive and the mental capacity to somehow stay the course.

They had reached the lower regions of the mountain but if they thought that the distance would see them safe, they were wrong. The volcano was spewing forth magma, sprays of liquid fire and rock raining down around them, hitting the clumps of snow and sending steam clouds into their faces.

“Hang on!” Jé Kinah cried as they careened off an embankment, half flew through the air and landed hard. If Evander had had enough breath to do so, he would have retorted something sarcastic. But he had no breath. It was being torn from his body as they slipped and skidded, their pace only increasing.

A particularly loud blast caught their attention and they both looked behind them to see an explosion rock the inside of the mountain. But instead of releasing more lava, the force knocked thousands of tonnes of snow from its precarious grasp upon the surface…and it began to slide down the mountain, gaining weight and speed at a terrifying rate.

“The whole mountain is going to crush us!” Evander roared though it sounded more like a squeak to Jé Kinah’s deafened ears. “Jé Kinah, fly away! Get to safety!”

Jé Kinah didn’t even both replying. There was no way she was going to leave Evander there to die. But at the rate the avalanche was gaining, they’d both be dead in a matter of seconds. Suddenly her sharp eye caught sight of an outcrop to their right. It wasn’t a cave but it would have to do.

“Lean right!” She yelled.

“What!” Evander protested but even as he did so, he leaned and Jé Kinah flexed her wings and the shield scraped and skidded, changing direction ever so slightly. But it wasn’t going to be enough. They were going to miss it by scant metres and the first boulders of snow of the landslide shot past them.

“Do not let go!” Jé Kinah cried but her words were drowned in the roar of the mountain attempting to kill them. She gripped Evander tight with her knees and, as they flew past the outcrop, reached out her arms, tucked her wings in and clutched the trunk of a tree. Jé Kinah’s arms nearly tore out of their sockets as she flung them around the tree and back up the hillside, heading straight for the outcrop…just as the avalanche exploded over the top of them, arms of snow and rock reaching out to crush them. The shield skittered off into the white abyss as Jé Kinah and Evander were thrown into the overhang of the outcrop. Evander landed hard, hitting his head on stone…

…and then the world went dark…