Chapter 16

But before one single member of the royal guard managed to cross the drawbridge to cover their adventurously bold king's back, before Duo gets a chance to make a leap up to the bridge's edge that Sallie, Cathrine, Mariemaia and Hilde were already standing safely upon, before another second ticks by...

A stream of powerful red energy with the strength of none before rocks the bank's edge like a 6.1 earthquake. Everyone, inside and out of the castle, is rattled off their feet.

Everyone--castle guards, elf and dragon master alike--all, that is, with the exception of one pair of experienced brothers.

Prince Trowa had a natural agility he had been born with and had been successful in teaching his elder brother a few pointers on balance. Though, Treize's stance was unpolished next to Trowa's unwavering one.

Ah, well, I'll get the hang of this soon. After all, a lady awaits...

Gaining his balance, Treize stands beside his brother before the wicked Sorceress who had just caused the world to tremble with a mere glance of her eyes.

"I can see why." Treize mumbles aloud.

Trowa, out of the corner of his eye, gives his sibling a questioned glance. For many years of seeing this happen, countless times in fact, he had become aware that his brother, the ruler of Aissur, His Majesty King Treize, was about to unleash his greatest, most powerful weapon against this evil, unstoppable woman, immune it seemed to everything else tried thus far--

For what woman in the world could deny King Treize's undeniable charm?

"You'd look so much better if you wore that lovely hair of yours down and not done up in that hat, I'm sure."

In utter disbelief of what this mere human mortal had just said to her, Sorceress Anne, never once before in her long life, had this much charm flourished upon her by a man---

And it makes her stop and take notice.

"What did...you dare...say, human?" Anne's angry heart of evil had no room for flattery and flirting. She was in disbelief that any man would even try it on her, especially when she knew herself, all of her life, that she was ugl--

"Without that hat, if your hair was down and flowing as it was meant to be, you would be quite a beautiful lady." Treize lays it on thick (or was he?) but all that charm he wielded so expertly does seem to have the correct effect today.

The earthquaking, trembling world ceases abruptly the moment the word "beautiful" escaped from his lips.

But the Sorceress' enchantment in his blue eyes is interrupted by an urgent call from Hilde to her friend still out in harm's way...

"Come on, Duo! Here's you chance!! Come on! Jump!!" Hilde cries, reaching out for Duo's hand. He had gotten to his feet the exact moment the quaking stopped.

"I'm comin', Hilde!" Duo screams out. Just as he is about to get a running start...

"Uhn, uhn, uhn." Anne blasts the riverbank again and it now completely separates itself from the collapsing drawbridge's edge.

The cacophony of screams and shouts of everyone inside were almost enough to mask the silent entrance of a pair of blonde riders atop a falcon swooping down from somewhere in the trees. Valkyrie tried to make it into the castle and save some people near the edge who might be sent plunging down into the frightening moat when the bridge goes down...

Golden wings come swooping in. Dorothy, with Quatre in the backseat as it were, aims the flying beast she was upon straight towards the bridge's edge.

"There's no admittance." Anne says devilishly as she sends yet one more bolt of energy right at the bird. It swerves but couldn't escape the entire blast. Feathers fly and Quatre as well, as the bolt knocks him right off his falcon's back, onto the grassy shore near where Duo was also downed.

"No! Turn back! Bird, you've dropped your master!" Dorothy shrieks and the falcon missed it's rider more than it wished to obey her, but brave Quatre was a selfless knight.

"No! Keep going, Valkyrie! That's an order! Hold on tight, Princess! Valkyrie, dive!!" Barely able to stand, Quatre yells out as he had never done before. The falcon, despite Dorothy's naysaying all the while, makes it's obedient trained dive as fast as the wind, no, faster. Her sudden burst of speed managed to escape another of Anne's blasts, diving right into the safety of the kingdom's force shield.

Dorothy, boy she had a tight grasp, was still holding on despite the blinding speed. Just in time, for she and her falcon catch a few last guards before they fall into the murky drink below.

"Oooh!! Blasted humans!" Anne's red hot anger sends torrents of hot blasts again and again at the shield surrounding the despised castle of light. It's magical barrier sparked at each hit, but it holds---so far.

Their kingdom under attack, both the Prince and the King go into action. Trowa draws his bow and special tipped arrows as Treize dashes up to the Sorceress.

She is taken aback by how close his face comes to her, a hypnotized look in her eyes as his swift hands remove the glasses right off her face--

And plants a quick kiss on her blood red lips as he does so.

"There. That's a start, Lady." A look of utter shock and....something else...was on her astonished face when his lips pull away. Her mind was in such a tizzy she didn't know what to do---

So someone else appears to do that "something" for her.

"Sorceress Anne! What ARE you doing?!" Lord Dermail snakey voice enters the scene, almost shocked at his evil protegee allowing any human to touch her and kiss her at that. It left her so flustered that she knew not what she was doing anymore.

"Really, child! Do not be fooled by this mortal king's ploys." Dermail rolls his eyes and sends a wave of magic that throws Treize far away, crashing the king into one elf who had been trying to sprint away unnoticed.

They fall into a pile of arms and legs and capes together to the hilly ground.

"Fire, brother...At him, not her..." Treize commands weakly. That blast of raw energy was pretty bad on the human body, and yet his human heart goes out to the lovely, misguided sorceress that the old magician had called Anne.

What a splendid name for you, Lady...

That was his last thought as he passes out atop one wriggling elf.

Hey! Get off!

At his King's command, Trowa fires his magic thwarting blue tipped arrow straight and true, aimed directly at Dermail's chest where a heart might have been. He regained himself at the same time Wufei rushes the evil magician who he now had a vendetta for Meilan's sake, and he screams out, growling.

His green, energized sword swings in towards Dermail, the same as Trowa's arrow. But neither of the attacks make it. Dermail laughs as he easily bats away Trowa's arrow and telekinetically turns it around to plunge straight into his former Dragon Master's chest.

Then with the power of his mind, Dermail throws the wounded clan member atop the Archer, who was already reloading and takes them both down.

"This is far too easy!" He chuckles easily. "You make it so enjoyable. How long did you think YOU could stand up against me? Ha ha ha."

"As long as we have something to stand for!" Trowa calls back defiantly. He tries to pull the arrow from Wufei's chest.

"As long as we see this castle, we will--" Quatre begins to add when Dermail's eyes light up with an idea.

"Ah, well. Perhaps I'll take even that away from you, brave warriors." He says with an evil sarcastic smirk and with a wave of his hand, all five men--elf, dragon warrior, human alike--standing against, all disappear in a flash of bright light.

"This castle will be mine by the time they return--IF they can return, that is. This castle and the world!! Ha ha ha ha ha ha!" Dermail's laughter echoes through even lands far beyond...