Forest Kingdom Trilogy 1 - Blue Moon Rising

Prince. The creature staggered backwards and almost fell, but caught his balance at the last moment. Rupert caught the Demon Prince in a bear hug, and hung on grimly, his head pressed against the creature's bony chest.
    'Father!' he yelled desperately. 'Get the sword! Get the bloody sword!'
    The Demon Prince's head snapped forward, the long spindly neck stretching impossibly. Rupert had only a brief glimpse of vicious teeth reaching for his throat before he released his hold and threw himself backwards. The jaws snapped together just short of his face, and then a hard bony knee shot up to slam into his side. Rupert groaned as he felt newly healed ribs break, and then the ground rose up to hit him.
    He rolled slowly on to his face and pushed himself up on to one elbow, just in time to see Julia try again to reach her sword. The demon Astrologer drove a fist into her gut, and she collapsed again, fighting for breath. The demon giggled. The Demon Prince moved slowly forward, chuckling softly. Rupert braced himself, and glanced quickly at his father. The King hadn't moved at all, and the sword still lay where
    Rupert had dropped it.
    'Father!'
    The Demon Prince stopped before the King, and smiled down at him. 'I don't think he hears you, boy.
    He's broken now, just another of my slaves. Aren't you, John?' He reached down and, taking the King by the throat, lifted him easily off the ground. The Demon Prince held him out at arm's length and shook him playfully, grinning broadly as he watched the King's feet kicking a yard and more above the ground.
    'Aren't you, John?'
    The King tore feebly at the Demon Prince's hand, air rattling in his throat.
    'You shall be the lowliest of all my slaves, little coward,' said the Demon Prince softly. He drew the King's face close to his own, and laughed mockingly. King John spat in his face. The Demon Prince howled with rage, and his hand closed tight about the King's throat. His other hand ripped through the King's chain-mail and sank its claws deep into the King's chest, searching for his heart.
    Rupert staggered to his feet and started towards them, and the demon Astrologer came to meet him.
    Julia lunged forward, snatched up Rupert's sword from the clearing floor, and threw it to him. Rupert snatched the sword out of mid-air, and turned quickly back to face the demon. It snarled once, and backed slowly away from him. The Demon Prince threw the King aside, and stalked towards Rupert, grinning broadly. Rupert stood his ground, hefting his sword in his hand. He could see Julia and his father, both struggling to get to their feet, their blood dripping on to the filthy moss. Even the dragon was stirring uneasily in his sleep. Rupert swallowed dryly. He knew cold steel wasn't going to be enough to stop the Dark Prince, but he had to try. His friends needed him. He lifted his sword above his head for one last desperate attack, and then all his rage and hope and need surged up into the sword and out, out into the long night and beyond, and the Demon Prince screamed despairingly as with the roaring of a mighty falls, the Rainbow slammed down into the Darkwood clearing.
    Brilliant colours threw back the darkness, thundering endlessly against the long night. Rupert turned his face up into the cascading light, and laughed aloud as strength flooded back into him. Vivid shades and colours burned through the night, driving back the Darkwood. Rupert looked around him for the Demon Prince. He could just make out a tall spindly shadow struggling weakly among the colours, like an insect trapped in hardening amber. And then, even as he watched, the shadow melted away into nothing. The Rainbow blazed bright and glorious against the night, and then was gone.
    Rupert slowly lowered his sword, and looked up into the night sky. For a moment he thought nothing had changed, and then, one by one, the stars came out, and the full moon overhead shone silver bright.
    The brooding oppression of the Darkwood was gone, as though it had never been, and already the first faint red gleam of dawn was spilling out on to the darkness. The long night was finally over.
    Rupert sheathed the rainbow sword, and looked about him. The mosses and fungi that had covered the clearing floor were gone, replaced by a thick carpet of grass that glowed softly with its own inner light.
    The Demon Prince was gone, and with him the creature that had once been the Astrologer. The dragon was sitting up on his haunches, shaking the last