The Hearts of Dragons by Josh VanBrakle

her knees, she collapsed forward. Her fists clutched
at the dirt. “I . . .” she began, but she didn’t seem able to
say more.
    “Minawë,” Rondel meant
to say the name gently, but it came out harsher than she expected, “when the
Stone Dragon Knight thought I was going to die, she told me she was looking for
Iren. I don’t know why, but I’m sure she wishes him harm. I can’t protect him
alone. We need to find him before she does.”
    The queen shook her
head. “I can’t,” she said. “Mother tried to use the Chloryoblaka. Father did
too. Look what happened to them! I can’t. I’m not strong enough. I’m all alone.
Oh, Mother, why did you leave me alone? I can’t be the Forest Dragon Knight. I
can’t be the Queen of the Kodamas. I can’t do anything!”
    Rondel vibrated with
rage. “What are you saying?” she yelled. “How can you just kneel there
paralyzed? You aren’t the Minawë I remember. What happened to your strong will?
What happened to the woman who risked her life to help her people? Will you now
hide in this forest and ignore your friend when his life is in danger?”
    In a single lithe
motion, Minawë swung around and rose to her feet. As she did, she punched Rondel
across the face. The old woman sprawled in the dirt.
    “What makes you think
you know anything about it?” Minawë cried. “You have no right to speak to me
that way!”
    “You deny it so
quickly,” Rondel said as she wiped a trail of blood from her lip. “That proves
I’m right. You may not think you’re ready to face it, but you know what you
have to do.”
    “You . . .”
Minawë tensed her body. “Get out of Ziorsecth!” she screamed. “As Queen of the
Kodamas, I command it. I never want to see your face again!” She ran away.
    But escaping Rondel
wasn’t that easy. The old woman pushed to her feet with her good hand, then
used magic to accelerate herself. She got in front of Minawë in a flash.
    The queen was running so
hard and had her eyes so tightly shut that she collided with Rondel at full
speed. Unlike with Minawë’s punch, though, this time Rondel didn’t budge.
Instead it was Minawë who fell. She landed hard on her back.
    Rondel cast Lightning
Sight and stared down at Minawë. “When I came here,” the old woman said, “I
felt as if time had stopped. Now I know why. You did let time stop. You let it
stop seven months ago when Aletas died. Let it start again! You’ve been asleep
for half a year, dreaming so you wouldn’t have to confront the real world.
Well, now you must confront it. Minawë, before it’s too late, you need to wake
up!”
    The woman on the ground
cried. Rondel felt a stab of pity. She continued more gently, “Do you know why
Aletas took up the Chloryoblaka, even though she didn’t want to?”
    Minawë nodded. “To
protect Ziorsecth and the Kodamas.”
    “No, they were a bonus.
The real reason,” Rondel pointed at Minawë, “was to protect you, the person she
cared about most. She knew she might die in that battle. She fought anyway,
because she wanted you to live.”
    Minawë clutched at her
heart.
    “So the only question
now,” Rondel pressed on, “is how best to honor her sacrifice.”
    For a long time Minawë
didn’t move. She didn’t speak. Her eyes grew so distant that Rondel was certain
the woman was reliving those last terrible moments of the Battle of Ziorsecth.
    At length Minawë stood
and returned to the burial ground. She knelt at Aletas’s grave, then stepped
past it and into the crater. When she reached the Chloryoblaka, she hesitated
only a second before she grasped the bow.
    The ground shuddered. A
barrage of vines, each thicker than Rondel’s forearm, burst from the soil. With
incredible speed one wrapped itself around each of Minawë’s arms and legs. The
four vines lifted her into the air in a spread-eagle position. She screamed.
The vines were wrenching away from her body.
    Seeing that Minawë was
about to be drawn and quartered, Rondel