The Assassin Princess (The Legacy Novels Book 1) (26 page)

Adam laughed. “Princess of Pain, Princess of Death.”
Dangerous
fought off an attack from the dark Adam, holding him at bay, but for how long? Ami turned to Adam and looked into his eyes.

“My Lord,” she said, smiling, “my Lord of Legacy.”

“Ami, you are more than the princess. You are
Ami,
your own person. Choose
yourself
.” But Hero’s cries fell on deaf ears as Adam rose to his feet, as
Dangerous
fell to her knees, dark Adam standing over her.

Ami fell to hers before him, her head bowed, a green fire creeping across her body at his touch. She burned for him, burned in his service.

“One must go,” the Sentries chanted and descended on Ami, the six spheres lengthening once more into pillars of light. “One must go.”

“My powerful assassin,” Adam preened, “exiled in madness to destroy the world—you can start with your own layer.” He sneered and she nodded, was lifted into the light even as Hero rushed to save her, as Talos and Graeme ran to her aid, as Raven called out and the young Grace watched in horror and hiding.

The Sentries chanted in her ears as she ascended and merged with them, a fully encompassed ball of light that lifted higher and higher into the air. “One must go. One must go. One must—”

The chanting stopped, as had their ascent. All was silent for a moment, a ringing silence that pounded in all ears that listened.

Then Ami pushed her blade deep into the Sentries light. “Take your power,” she whispered through flames of green that ran down her body like rain. “I’ll take your power, take all you have and make it my own. Take your happiness and beauty, your fear and terror. It’s mine.”

The blade pulsed with white and Ami fed from the fount, her mind flooding with images and secrets of a world once whole. She saw the
beings
as they’d once been, saw the world they’d lived in and how they’d shattered it. She saw the layers splice and slice and fall away from the whole until all that remained was fragmented copies of the one world, left to run their own course, a different course for each. She saw the societies develop or fail, the wildlife thrive and disappear, saw humans multiply and become extinct. She saw the portals and where they broke into each layer—all the memories and combined knowledge and power.

Her eyes opened and Ami smiled.

The spheres separated and winked from existence as Ami fell to her feet before them. She raised her head and looked between the two Adams.

“Stop,” she said, raising her hand. Their advances stopped. Adam’s smooth, white forehead creased, his limbs unable to move.

“What the—”

“I control the power now, for I am the fount of all in this layer.” She understood everything. Everything. “I own your power. I own you, Brother,” she proclaimed.

Ami raised her sword and
Dangerous
joined her, their blades pointing at the Adams. Neither could move, neither Adam nor shadow. Their eyes burned fierce black confusion, their lips moving soundlessly to form words no longer permitted.

They moved as one, the Shadow Princess impaling the shadow Adam, and the Assassin Princess impaling her own. Each opened his mouth to scream a silent scream, a smoke of blackness rushing past their teeth as both swords touched and slid against each other, pairing the two Adams back-to-black. Pivoting, Ami aimed them at the trunks of hollows and pushed forward, sliding them from the blades like food from a cocktail stick.

The two fell together into the hollow and immediately burst into white flame, burning as one man. The last they saw of Adam was his eyes, wide and scared, returned to their original blue-grey.

*

As Adam disappeared for good, the man and his shadow, Ami fell to the ground. Hero rushed to her side, lifting her into his arms and watched with falling tears as the pure white power that had been hers for an instant, vacated her unconscious body. The power floated across the mist, lurching up into the six hollowed trees as if too weak to carry on. There it bled into the trunks themselves before settling and disappearing.

Ami remained unconscious, though the
stranger-girl
remained, simply standing and watching, her part now at an end. Hero lifted her and carried her toward her mother and father. Lord Graeme took her and held her close, his child, his Ami.

Talos nuzzled Florence, licking at her hair, while Raven sat down on the ground, looking around him. The forest was silent so suddenly, as if it had never been before. Grace touched Hero’s arm and he looked into her eyes.

“You left, and I know where you went,” she said, her voice soft and yet still the loudest thing in the forest, “for there are three of me still and all are linked in some form or another, as all the layers are. You know what I must do.”

Hero looked between her and the dark portal. “Is it time for you to move on?”

She nodded, and Graeme, stroking Ami’s hair, nodded also. “I’ll see you soon, my Lady.” He bent and kissed Grace tenderly on the corner of her wrinkled mouth. She smiled, bowed, and walked to the trees.

She turned back for one last look at them. “I look forward to my new life,” she said, “and I look forward to yours.”

Hero moved as if to stop her but didn’t, and Lady Grace stepped one foot, then the other into the hollow of one of the trees. In a flash of white flame, she disappeared.

“You must all leave through the ruins,” Shadow Ami said. “It’s the only way for any to leave the Mortrus Lands and keep their sanity. Shadows may be created, but they will not be very strong if they are. The Sentries are diminished and may well soon die.”

Hero stood before her and stared into her eyes. “Ami, is it over? What is to happen?”

“I cannot tell you what is to happen, dear Hero of the Guard.” She smiled and stroked her hand across his roughened cheek. “I can only tell you that this tale is near an end, and you have won. I shall remain, though I cannot leave these woods for long. You’ll be seeing me.”

A moment later, Ami began to wake in Graeme’s arms. She looked up at her father and hugged him tight, her arms clinging around his neck.

“Where has Adam gone?” Raven asked from the ground. “I don’t understand.”

“On to another layer,” Shadow Ami said. “He is now a new person, somewhere else, sometime other than now. He may remember, in time, or he may not. Either way, it’s doubtful he will have power. He will just be lost in the legacy of the Sentries.”

“And what of them?” Florence asked, sheathing her sword. “What of these beings? They controlled all of this. If they die, what happens then?”

“The people of Legacy have never needed a lord from the Mortrus Lands,” Graeme said, “just a reason to exist and be happy. They lost hope when an heir did not return only because they believed they needed one. We can survive.”

Talos raised his head. “Will the unicorn power leave our people?”

“Only time will tell,” Shadow Ami said. “We know nothing. Though, I suspect it shall continue, as will the power of all that it spawned.”

Ami dropped from her father’s grasp and walked to her shadow, to
Dangerous
. “Thank you,” she said, “for everything you have done here.”

“You have done,” she said, “you are doing and will do. I am but a shadow, working as you work, thinking as you think, doing the things that you do.”

“But you are powerful and skilled and—”

“So are you. Believe in yourself.” She smiled and brought Ami into a hug. Both green and purple light tickled across them, stroking their skin. She lifted their blades and presented the hilt to Ami. “This symbol means infinity, forever. Your power is forever.” A figure ‘8’ on its side adorned the hilt, a second on the blade’s base. Ami smiled.

“It will be Legacy’s symbol too,” Hero said. “Legacy forever, because of you, Princess Ami.”

The young Grace had appeared, and after a short time they all followed her small steps, through the mist and into the ruins of her own creation. There, against the backdrop of a secret place of a creative mind, they gathered upon the platform, entering the archways tentatively, reappearing at the edge of the dark forest, each in turn stepping to the spring and drinking from it. It had been a long time in the dark.

The day had not yet fallen to evening, had in fact been just as they’d left it. The golden light shifted through the tops of the green and brown of a living forest, and the birds sang their evening tunes, welcoming the warm night and the chance to rest.

Ami slept on the journey back to Legacy, laying upon the back of the
next-girl
, forever and always how she would think of the unicorn that now rode through the lands at whisper-quick speed. Holding on to her was Hero, Talos carrying Graeme and Raven, the unicorn keeping equal pace with his mate.

None spoke on their journey, not until they had risen along the destroyed mountain road, the unicorns carefully picking their way through, round and over the fallen rock. The city was destroyed, its people distraught. Thousands had died and many were dying, and as the sun set across the western sea, breaking its orange spill into shifting fragments like broken ice, the small group reached the source of destruction and the space that had once been the castle.

Graeme and Hero dismounted, while Raven lay weeping upon Talos’s back.

“Gone,” Hero said.

“Yes,” Graeme replied simply, “but it was not your fault, Hero. If Ami had to believe in herself to accomplish the salvation of all layers, then you, I am sure, can stop blaming yourself for the actions of others. You may be named by your very nature, but it does not mean you have to be
everybody’s
hero. Even if you are only hero to one person, you have accomplished your namesake.” He took his shoulder and squeezed it gently, nodding toward Ami.

Exhausted, blackened with dirt, ash and dust, Ami slipped from Florina’s back and shuffled forward, holding her sword of the first unicorn slain, the core of all of their power. She withdrew it from its sheath and held it up to the dying rays of the day, inspecting the symbol ∞. “Infinity. Forever.”

“Legend has it,” Talos said, “that the castle was in fact created by the sword itself. The power of our race, and the Sentries before us, it would seem, is first and foremost a power to create for necessity.”

“Do you think it could work again?” Ami said, the spark returning to her eyes. Purple sheened her waxen skin, green following it.

Hero exchanged glances with Graeme, who shrugged.

“I doubt anyone knew what would happen the first time, so…give it a go.”

Ami looked down and paced, looking for the right spot. She came to the foot of the stairs and walked out into what had been the courtyard, descending the steps to the destroyed road. She stopped and turned to the outlying lands to the east. The Planrus Lands were there, under the darkened sky, the stars sparkling above.

“Here,” she said, and raised the sword. Like a dagger to the heart, Ami drove the blade deep into the mountain rock, and the peak began to shake. As rock formed walls rose around her, she gave a smile to the night and watched her creation grow.

Hero and Ami
walked hand in hand through the lush meadow.

The sky was a gorgeous rippled blue, the gilded sides of clouds more magical than she thought she could ever paint, yet Hero disagreed.

“I think you could paint the world afresh and bring it to life how it should be,” he said. “I think you have talent and promise, Princess.”

“Aw, shucks,” she said, playfully mocking the Guard in a way he’d probably never fully understand. They were from different worlds, or different layers at least. She’d grown up with television and computers, electrical items that talked to you, food that was fast and bad for you…Hero had grown up with swords and horses, magical unicorns close by, and a land to protect in her stead. Yet, despite their differences, she honestly believed that she loved him. How could she not? She’d been whisked away on a mad adventure where she had done good and evil, had tried to kill him and had saved everyone. It was magical, and it was real, and it was because of him. He’d awoken her. How could she not love him? Plus, he was quite attractive.

Hero stopped walking and placed his hand on top of hers. “I know you have to go back, but you will visit again soon, won’t you?”

Ami looked to the Solancra Forest and back across the meadow where she had first arrived. She was going to go home, home to a place where she wanted to be more than anything, but a place where she was no one special—no, she supposed that wasn’t true anymore, for now she knew that not only was she a powerful princess, but also that it was worth being Ami, no matter what the layer.

“I’ll be returning,” she said. “I don’t think my work here is done just yet. After all, I’m still the Assassin Princess of Legacy.”

“The castle is rebuilt—”

“And the land secure, I know. The people are happy and Florence is doing an awesome job at looking after everything.”

“Awesome,” Hero repeated, smiling, “a word I like. I should use it I think. Awesome.”

“Oh, please no, don’t start sounding like the guys from home. I love you how you are.”

“Guys?”

“Men—”

“Love me?”

“Yes.”

Their eyes met and their hands held firm, and when Hero’s mouth touched down on Ami’s, she felt the power swim through both of them—but she thought maybe this was a different kind of power. She smiled, pulling back.

“I will come back,” she said. “I am the princess, and I will look after Legacy. I am planning on visiting other layers too. The Sentries were scattered. I don’t remember much from harnessing them within me, not now, but I remember parts. Parts I think I need to see for myself.”

“My hero,” Hero said, walking once more. “Forever my hero.”

“As you are mine,” she said.

They stopped and Ami took the sword from its sheath. “This is where I get off,” she said, remembering a story she’d been told. It jogged in her memory and suddenly, more than anything, she wanted to go there, where her own story had truly begun. She looked up at Hero. “I need to get going.”

“I understand. Please, don’t leave it too long. We need you, Princess Ami.”

“Believe me,” she said, “I need all of you too. You are my inspiration.”

With one deft stroke, Ami slit an opening into the layers and watched it peel the grass like an orange. She took one last look around and then reached over to kiss Hero. She lingered on his lips and her hand stroked his stubbly cheek and chin. Then she stepped into the rip, and was gone.

The rip sealed and Hero stepped over the spot, a tear careening down his face. He looked up at the sun, hidden behind a golden cloud. “I miss you already,” he whispered, letting his words rise up into the breeze.

*

The platform was busy, the people busy, and Ami wasn’t sure she was ready for it. How long had she been in the other layer? Could only have been a few days and yet, all these people…she hid the sword within the robes she’d worn over her dress and stepped into the shade. A couple of steps further, avoiding the business man with his very important briefcase, and there. Ami stopped and looked through the gap left between two suitcases. The woman appeared as if from nowhere, so sudden that a blink would have missed her arrival. She was beautiful, he’d been right about that. For a moment she seemed completely out of sorts, but after hundreds of years of composure, she wasn’t for long. The elegant woman straightened and then looked out down the track.

A train soon slowed and pulled into the station, and Ami watched the people disembark. The woman though did not move. She waited, waited for the man who approached her out of the blue and fell in love with her all over again.

She saw him, her father, young and handsome. The meeting.

After they left together, moving on to their life and her eventual birth, Ami stood on the spot they had vacated and looked around, breathing in the air.

“Home,” she said, and smiled, liking the sound of the word. “I will always find it here.”

*

Ami walked through the meadows and up to the paddock where the forever-chestnut horse stood, simply grazing in the morning light. Her eyes were big and beautiful, and at her approach, the horse bowed her head. She had been visiting the same horse every year, ever since she’d been a small girl. She’d nicknamed her Mystic, though now she knew her true name.

She stroked her muzzle and bent close, the horse allowing it, her lips touching her ear. “Florina—there is something you must do…”

Soon she would send her back through, to be the girl Florence, armed only with the knowledge she needed to help save the world—and another cycle would complete.

*

Julie opened the door to find the flat freezing cold. She shivered, turned the light on and walked across the room, slowly inspecting the cause. If the cardboard hadn’t have been there, blocking the hole up, she wouldn’t have even gone near it, but it just seemed so strange.

The glass had been swept, the window covered, and a note left on the coffee table.

“Julie,” it said, “sorry about the window. A bird flew into it and with the wind just being so…windy…it cracked and blew right in. I’m okay. I ran and smashed through my art room door—” Julie looked up and jumped to see the spare room door demolished. “—and I hurt myself, so I have taken myself to the hospital, and my parents will come and collect me from there. Gonna take a break from everything. Will be back soon, I promise, and the damages will be paid for. I’ll sort it. Love ya, Ami.”

Julie put down the note and shook her head, heading to her room. “What a night!” First she’d dumped Jason, and now this?

Ami looked round the doorway and then slunk back into the spare room. She unpinned the last of her artwork she wanted to take with her, placed it into her bag and zipped it up.

She swung the sword.

*

Walking across the platform, Ami stepped down the steps and through into the walkway, placing her bag down on the ground. She could see the mirrors, floating in the far off room of darkness.

“What is that room?”

“It’s the one you created,”
Dangerous
said, whispering in her ear. Ami didn’t turn to her. “It wasn’t there before. Grace didn’t create this walkway, nor the buildings at either end. These are yours.”

“And now they are yours.”

“Ours.”

“I can come back?”

“Always,” she whispered.

Ami picked up the bag and headed back to the white steps, walking between the rising columns and into the incomplete archways, and then home.