Hector- Stab 2

A movement and a cry to his right caught his eye, a shape coming forward into his field of vision. Instinct told him to lash out, knock the intruder away, and his right hand connected with the figure’s chest and sent it backward. The jeweled dagger was suddenly out of his hand—there one moment, gone the next. He turned to see whom he’d struck.

Queen Amelie staggered back along the road, her back turned to him. The fury and anger that had consumed Hector vanished, his mind refocusing in an instant and causing the vile to cease its attack.

What are you doing, Hector? hissed his brother, enraged to have its moment of indulgence snatched away.

“Silence!” cried the Boarlord with wheezing breath, taking a faltering step of his own after the queen. “Your Majesty . . .” he said, both hands raised before him, taking her by the shoulders and turning her to face him.

Amelie’s skin was paler than ever, her blue lips trembling as the tears froze in her fading gray eyes. Her hands trembled around the dagger hilt, where it protruded from her chest, buried into her heart. She fell into the magister’s arms, her lips brushing his earlobe as she tried to speak.

“I . . . I forgive you. . . .”

A horror like he’d never known engulfed Hector. Amelie’s head lolled back, her eyes shifting from gray to yellow as they stared into the heavens. White lupine fur raced from her flesh, her teeth sharpening as her mouth opened for one final cry to the heavens. The lingering howl that emerged was the most mournful wail Hector had ever heard, a scream of sorrow that leapt higher than the Strakenberg and echoed across the Whitepeaks. The Ugri ran clear, covering their ears, looking away, terrified by the noise. Hector held her, his body reverberating, alone with her in his arms. The white fur receded, the canines disappeared, and as the howl’s last note escaped Queen Amelie’s lips, her life went with it.

B5 P4 C6