The afternoon was turning into evening when Valerie decided to head back to the castle, after spending many hours in what remained of Rismark, looking for survivors. She was horrified whenever she came upon a body of one of Bargar’s victims, but she knew she couldn’t dwell on every death that was caused. Throughout her childhood, the killing of humans for sport had been a constant feature of her life and she had hoped she could put such sights behind her for good, but, as Alban had told her, humans are as capable of being cruel and murderous to one another as the giants had been long ago.
Thinking of Alban reminded her that she hadn’t checked up on him in several hours, so she hurried back to her throne room. There she found him still in the care of Alenia and the other women who assisted her. She knelt down on the floor next to them, taking care not to inadvertently crush any of the tiny people around her.
“He’ll make it through safe and sound, Princess,” Alenia told her, and she breathed a sigh of relief. “Prince Alban is an exceptionally strong and healthy man – it’ll take more than a kick from that monster’s boot to bring him down. It’ll take a few weeks, but he’ll be fully healed with time, I promise.”
“Thank you, Alenia. I cannot tell you how grateful I am to you for taking care of him like this. If there is ever anything you would ask of me, please do so. I am in your debt. If he’s no longer in danger, I’m afraid there are more patients on their way who need your healing skills as well.”
“Very well, Your Highness…but first, I must insist that I take a look at your face. The cuts and bruises need treatment at once, or an infection might take hold. Lie down for me, please, then I can take a closer look at you.”
Valerie obeyed and lay down on her back, glad to spend some time off her feet for a change. The weight of the armour she was still wearing was starting to become unbearable, since she was not at all used to it. She couldn’t wait to take it off and head upstairs for a cleansing bath, and then go straight to bed. As Alenia and the nurses cleaned her facial wounds and rubbed them with ointment, she kept on thinking of her opponent from earlier. Bargar’s body still lay where it fell, crushed to death underneath the breastplate of his armour. She had no wish to get her hands dirty today by burying it, but decided to leave that task until tomorrow.
Valerie knew it had only been through sheer luck that she had defeated Bargar. If he hadn’t fallen for her ruse…if his pride hadn’t been so easily wounded…he could have killed her as she lay helpless on the ground. She realized now that she’d been foolish not to carry on training for combat with Alban and promised herself that she’d ask him to do so again, once he had fully recovered. She had no idea where Bargar, a mere thug, had managed to find an enchanted suit of armour, but now that she knew that such weapons existed, she could be more prepared for another such attack in the future.
After her wounds had been tended to as well as the tiny nurses could manage, Valerie thanked them and gave them permission to continue using her throne room as a makeshift hospital. She knew that there would be more and more injured people arriving as the night continued, and that most of them no longer had homes to stay in, thanks to Bargar’s destructive actions. So, she headed to her kitchen and filled several small bowls she found there with water. Then she carried them back to the throne room on a tray, which she then put down where the nurses and volunteers were still busy looking after the wounded.
“Here, you can use this water for washing, and one of the bowls should give you enough water to drink as well,” she told them. The bowls were each the size of an average room in a human-sized house, so there was plenty of water to go around.
“Thank you again, Princess Valerie,” Alenia said, and her words were echoed by all those who stood nearby. “But please, go and get some rest now. You look worn out to your very bones.”
“Yes, you’re right, I am tired…but even so, I don’t know if I’ll be able to sleep as long as I’m worrying about Alban…and what if we’re attacked again during the night? I can’t be sure that Bargar was the only enemy who had come here, there could be others.”
“If we see any indications of another attack, I’ll send someone upstairs at once to wake you, Your Highness,” came the reply from Ansur, who had only just joined the group in the throne room. “But if there are any more of those monsters out there, they’ve had plenty of time to attack already. Perhaps, by defeating Bargar, you’ve managed to frighten them off – assuming that there were more of them in the first place.”
“Yes, perhaps…ugh, I don’t have the strength to think about it now. I’m dying to get some sleep…but I’ll be up early tomorrow morning and return to helping you, I promise.”
She bid all of her subjects who were in the room a good night, then headed off in the direction of the cellars, there to take off her armour and store it safely away again. Having never had the responsibilities of a ruler before, Valerie was constantly concerned whether or not her people were satisfied with her leadership, and whether it might not be better to just let Alban rule by himself from now on. So far, she had not heard of any complaints against her or dissatisfaction with her rule, but it could simply be the case that none of her subjects were brave enough to tell her so themselves…
“Oh, what am I thinking?” she said aloud to herself, stopping her negative train of thought. “Why on earth would they hate me, when I’ve given so much to them already? Do they blame me for what happened today? How could they, when I did everything that I could to stop Bargar as quickly as possible? If only I was one of them…if only I was human…then I would know that they trusted me!”
She leapt down the last few steps into the main cellar, nearly stumbling due to her weariness. She couldn’t wait to remove the armour and be rid of its suffocating weight. But before she could do anything, she noticed something odd. A man was standing on the floor in front of her. She had barely been able to see him in the flickering torchlight that lit the cellars, since he was only human-sized, but now that her eyes had adjusted, she could tell that he was quite elderly, and also that he was standing on what looked to be an unfurled scroll of paper.
“Who are you?” she asked, looking down on the man from her colossal height. “How did you get down here, and what are you doing here in my castle?”
“Who am I?” the old man repeated in a mocking tone. His voice sounded strong and resonant, despite his age and small size. “Oh, you’ll soon find out, don’t worry! I take it you’ve managed to defeat dear old Bargar then, Princess?”
“Yes, of course I have…wait…you’re with him, aren’t you?”
She stepped forward and knelt down, but was hesitant of reaching down and simply grabbing the old man. He didn’t seem frightened of her, but stood his ground on the paper scroll.
“I was with him, but thankfully I no longer have need of his assistance,” the stranger answered. “I am Shalmat, o great and powerful Princess of Vandan, and I’m afraid I’ll have to ask you to hand over your kingdom to me, your new lord and master!”
“Hand over…don’t be ridiculous!” Valerie said, chuckling in disbelief. “I’m sorry, my little friend, but your scheme has failed. Your ‘friend’ is dead, crushed flat by his own stupidity. As for you, I’m afraid I’ll have to take you to one of our dungeon cells. I’ll decide what to do with you in the morning.”
She lowered her hand to pick him up, then recoiled when a sudden bright light streamed from the mysterious man’s fingertips. The light filled the air around him and lit up the words written on the scroll beneath him. Looking down, Shalmat began at once to read those words, which Valerie realized were written in the old language of the giants, which she had not heard since her childhood.
“That’s enough!” she cried out. “You’re coming with me right now!”
She reached down once again to grab him, just as he read the last few words on the scroll. Almost at once, however, Shalmat began to grow in size. It happened so quickly that Valerie leapt back in astonishment. Within seconds, he had increased in size from a mere five-and-a-half feet in height to a size matching hers. She could now look him directly in the eyes, and he was staring back at her malevolently.
“Ha! Not so bold now, are you, my child?” he sneered at her, grasping the magic scroll in his hand. “If only you knew what powers lay hidden in…in…wait, what’s happening?”
Almost as quickly as he’d grown to giant-size, a new change came over the old sorcerer. Starting from his feet and moving upwards, Shalmat began to turn into stone, his clothing as well as his body. He screamed in panic and frantically tried to read from the scroll again, but the transformation was too fast and his head and hands were petrified along with the rest of him. Valerie stood and stared, dumbfounded, without the least idea of what she’d just witnessed. When it was obvious that Shalmat wasn’t going to suddenly return to life again, she took a few cautious steps forward. She reached out and plucked the scroll from his stone hand, silently read what was written on it, then breathed a sigh of relief and understanding.
“You had no idea what you were reading, did you?” she asked the wizard, who was now nothing more than a statue standing on the cellar floor. “Perhaps next time, you’ll try and learn a language first, before reading its words. Not that you’ll get another chance, obviously.”
Then, turning around, she called out several times for any remaining enemies to show themselves and surrender to her. When no-one appeared, and satisfied that she won’t be getting any more unexpected surprises, Valerie sat down and begun the laborious task of removing her armour. The pieces of metal fell on the floor with loud clangs, but she left them where they lay. Cleaning the place up could wait until tomorrow: now it was time for a bath and then bed.
She headed back up when she was done, making sure to lock the cellar doors behind her this time, and made her way up to her chambers. In her hand she carried the fateful scroll which Shalmat had read from and which had caused his demise. What to do with it, she didn’t yet know. In the right hands, it could be a valuable thing to have – but she was also afraid of its power and that it might fall into the clutches of another foe who meant to do her harm someday. So, she locked it away in a small drawer in her cupboard, and reminded herself to speak to Alban about it once he was back to full health again.
“What a terrible day,” she thought to herself, as she lay in her bathtub and washed away the gallons of blood that stained her body and clothes. “I never want to have another like it – but there’ll be more, won’t there? More enemies who seek to harm me and my people, and who knows what else besides? But I’ll be ready for them next time, and the time after that, and the time…”
As she slipped away into such thoughts, her drowsiness became to much to resist and she drifted away into sleep.