Chloe climbed to her feet and stumbled over, grabbing hold of the hilt and lifting the weapon. It was suddenly light in her hands and she knew what she had to do. Solon was consumed with the ark; his eyes feverish as he took hold of whatever was in there.

‘You want your enemies to be distracted. Then, when you take action, be bold,’ Tomarys whispered in her ear.

She came up behind the sun king and gazed at the thick yellow silk of his robe, at a place directly between his shoulder blades. She thought of Princess Yasmina’s terrible fate. Most of all, she remembered her friend, Tomarys.

‘Let me end the pain,’ Chloe murmured.

Solon whirled at the sound of her voice but she didn’t hesitate, she thrust in hard, plunging the sharp blade into the center of the sun king’s back, feeling the steel make contact and then slide in with little effort. The point emerged out the other side as he screamed in pain. The lid of the ark crashed closed and the rainbow light immediately vanished. He clasped his hands over the blade as if trying to pull it out through his chest. Chloe let go of the hilt as he stared at her with eyes so wide she could see their whites.

The sun king opened his mouth to speak. He staggered for two steps, clutching the sharp steel as he glared at her. Crimson liquid spurted from between his lips.

Finally he fell to his knees and then toppled to the side. Solon shuddered and then died, eyes gazing sightlessly as his lifeblood welled around his body. Chloe looked at her shaking hands. The Oracle’s prophecy had been fulfilled. The sun king had died in the thirty-first year of his reign. But it hadn’t been the sickness in his chest that killed him.

Hearing a roar of frustration, Chloe saw the one-eyed dragon release its grip on its enemy and fly away. Unable to open the ark himself, Triton’s plans had been defeated. The black dragon came down from the sky, flying unsteadily to the cleared space between the temple’s columns, one of its wings moving with jerky movements. It shuddered as it finally landed a short distance from the cliff edge.

The creature’s chest heaved as the angular eyes regarded Chloe with strange sorrow. Despite the fact that it had saved her life, she felt a shiver of fear as she looked at it.

Mist suddenly clouded the black-scaled dragon, thickening before it began to shimmer. She forced herself to approach. She didn’t know which of the eldren it was who had saved her, but she had to thank him.

But when the mist cleared, Chloe felt her entire world crashing down around her. She knew her face was filled with horror. She refused to believe what she was seeing.