51. Chapter 51
Chapter fifty-one
Cyrus drove a ruthless assault, trying to breach the walls of the Shadow stronghold, wave after wave, but the Shadow King held, despite having a fraction of an army.
He’d called out to Bash and Ram again, over and over, but they still hadn’t answered. He’d even searched the bonds for Miriel, although he knew she hadn’t taken the blood. He prayed to the gods he’d previously cursed that she’d made it out.
Cyrus had two birds left in the air, and he pushed them both to Japheth. It would take time for them to reach the battlefield in the southernmost kingdom of Aleon. He’d have to wait to see.
Fuck the gods , he hated waiting, but not fuck the gods entirely —he needed Miriel safe.
Hephain pushed a waterskin into his hand. “Drink. You need your strength.”
Cyrus wasn’t sure when he’d last had something—water or food. He wasn’t thirsty, but he drank it anyway. When the water touched his tongue, it was good, and he gulped it down.
“Have you eaten anything?” Hephain asked.
“I’m not hungry.”
“Just bring something,” Essandra said, coming up behind him. “He’ll eat it.”
Cyrus didn’t care about food right now. He turned his mind to Brant, who was with the geomancer Necross, searching for a weakness in the stronghold walls. “ What have you found? ” he asked through the blood bond.
“ Not much yet ,” Brant told him. “ Everywhere we’ve tested is reinforced with Mercian steel. These walls aren’t coming down. ”
Cyrus growled out in frustration. Then he paused.
He had a forge witch.
“I need Mal,” he said to Essandra. “There’s Mercian steel reinforcing the walls. Necross needs help to bring them down.”
A line trenched her brow. “A forge witch won’t have power over Mercian steel,” she told him.
“That’s not true.”
“That’s absolutely true,” she argued.
“I’ll give him my blood.”
The line in her brow deepened. “You act like that solves everything. I’m telling you—he won’t be able to manipulate it.”
“Send him anyway.”
“Cyrus—”
“Please.”
She sighed and finally nodded, relenting.
“ The forge witch is on his way ,” Cyrus sent back to Brant.
“Let me take a legion to the east side,” Everan told him. “I’ll see if there’s an opportunity there.”
“Not you. Not yet.” Not until he knew more.
Cyrus looked back at the western walls of the stronghold under siege.
“Another wave!” he ordered.
Cyrus was relentless. He hammered the west wall with men.
Bodies lay so thick that one couldn’t see the ground underneath.
These were heavy losses to his army, but the Shadowmen had shifted to hand-to-hand defense against his men that reached the top.
They were out of arrows or saving what few they had left.
They’d run out of men eventually too. Cyrus had enough to batter them for days.
“ Cyrus ,” Brant called in his mind. He was still looking for a way to breach the stronghold with the witches.
“ What do you have? ” Cyrus asked him.
“ The witches can’t do anything against Mercian steel, and this stronghold is full of it. ”
Cyrus swore under his breath.
“ But the north barbican isn’t reinforced ,” he continued. “They probably imagined it strong enough on its own because it’s a secondary wall and it has banded iron. And it’s fucking massive. But if we get past that, the second wall is just stone, no steel. ”
Cyrus’s patience was waning. He didn’t need an architecture lesson, he needed a breach in the wall. “ Can the witches bring it down? ”
“ They say they can. ”
Good. “ Have them do it. Tell me when they’re close. ”
“ Cyrus ,” Jaem’s voice broke through. He’d continued to sleuth the stronghold with a small group of men, looking for additional opportunities. “ A Shadow army—forty thousand maybe—is gathered just beyond the southern ridge. ”
So, the rest of the Shadow King’s army had arrived. Cyrus needed to hold them off until he could get into the stronghold. “ Brant found a weakness in the wall ,” he relayed.
“ I’ll do you one better ,” Jaem replied. “ I found a tunnel inside. ”
Cyrus froze. His heart beat faster.
“ It’s not a large one—we can’t get our army through. ”
Damn.
“ But if we can get a few men in, we might be able to open the gates from the inside. ”
“ Do you think you can do it? ” Cyrus asked him. Jaem was no Orion. But he was good.
Jaem’s chuckle echoed in his mind. “ Of course I can. ”
Cyrus felt confident about breaching the north wall, but nothing was certain. And, if Jaem and his men could get through the tunnel, they could open another path for the army. “ Do it. ”
“ I’ll go now. ”
“ Jaem ,” Cyrus said, “ good work. And stay clear of the north wall. We’re going to bring it down. ”
Cyrus strode back to where Kord and Everan were waiting with Essandra.
The dogs rose from where they’d been lying by Teron, who sat in a wheeled chair that Cyrus had made for him.
Cyrus wasn’t thrilled about the old healer being here, but Teron had insisted on coming, and Cyrus had needed him as he kept drawing blood.
And it was a low risk, keeping him in the back of the army.
If things went poorly, there were men committed to getting him back to the safety of Rael.
“It’s time,” Cyrus told everyone. “Brant and the witches will have the north wall down soon, and Jaem found a tunnel into the stronghold.”
Kord and Everan snapped up.
“But the rest of the Shadow army has arrived,” Cyrus added. “They’re waiting just past the southern ridge.”
“What are they waiting for?” Kord asked.
“Likely nightfall. They don’t have the numbers to take us directly in broad daylight.” He looked at Sergen. “Take forty thousand men to the south. You won’t be able to stop the Shadow army, but you can delay them until we breach the north side.”
“I’ll go with him,” Everan said.
Cyrus didn’t like that idea at all.
“Forty thousand is a lot, Cyrus,” Everan added, seeing his objection. “He’ll need help positioning them. And I want to get eyes on the Shadow army. Once they engage, I’ll join you on the north side.”
Reluctantly, Cyrus nodded. He looked at Kord.
“You’ll take a legion to the tunnel. Once Jaem makes it in, just keep feeding men through.
” Jaem had said he couldn’t fit an army, but that wouldn’t keep him from fucking trying.
“I’ll take the rest of the army to the north wall.
” He nodded to Hephain. “You’re with me.
” Then he nodded to them all. “This is it.”
Teron stood wearily and put on his cloak, and Cyrus stepped to him.
He put a hand on the healer’s shoulder. “You stay here.”
“You’ll need me.”
Cyrus shook his head. “Not this time.” He smiled. “You got me all the way through to the end, my friend.” He pulled him into an embrace. “I’ll see you on the other side.”
Cyrus turned to Essandra. “Will you help me get ready?”
She nodded and followed him into the tent they shared. Without a word, she started putting on his armor and fastening the buckles.
She stopped at his shoulder. “You…” She sucked in a breath. “You…” Her lips trembled, and she started to cry.
“Hey. Hey, what’s wrong?” He reached out and clasped the nape of her neck. “Look at me.”
She shook her head. “Something’s not right. I don’t feel good about it.”
He pulled up her chin to lift her eyes to his. “I kill the Shadow King. It’s been foreseen,” he assured her. “I prevail.”
“At what cost?” she whispered.
“I’ve paid the cost. It’s everything I’ve done to get here.”
She shook her head again, and another tear spilled down her cheek. “Don’t do this. Cyrus, please don’t do this. We have everything we need; we have each other.”
“I have to do this. For our people.”
“Our people are free.”
He caressed her cheek, then drew his thumb across her bottom lip. “But I’m not free,” he said hoarsely.
“You can be. You have Rael and Serra. Those most guilty have paid. And the Shadowlands—this isn’t even the same king. Let’s just go back to Rael.”
Cyrus held her face in his hands. “If he deserved to live, fate would have had mercy. But it’s fate who has sent me.”
She quieted again. He pulled her close, holding her tightly.
“I prevail,” he assured her again. “You’ll see.”
She pulled away and attached his breastplate. When it was fastened, she spread her fingers wide against the steel. “Don’t take it off,” she said.
“I won’t.”
Her breaths came shorter, and another tear fell. “Don’t. Don’t take it off,” she said again. “I know you’ll want to. But do not take it off. No spear, no arrow can pierce it, but you cannot take it off.”
He put his hands over hers. “I won’t take it off.”
She kissed him, and kissed him again, and again. “Don’t,” she begged.
“I won’t.” He pulled her hand up to his cheek and nuzzled her palm.
“After this, you have to be done,” she begged. “Please be done. I want to be done.”
“After this, we’ll be done,” he promised.
Back outside the tent, Hephain was waiting. Everan, Kord, and Sergen had already left.
Cyrus mounted his horse and Essandra mounted beside him, still quiet. He reached out and squeezed her hand. He whistled for the dogs to follow, then he led his army out toward the north wall.
Cyrus pushed them quickly. It was almost nightfall, and he needed to breach the wall before the waiting Shadow army made its move. But he wasn’t overly concerned. Everything was coming together.
He reached the north side and could already see a mountain of rubble, with the geomancer pulling down rock, piece by piece. As he drew nearer, he felt Jaem calling to him from where he was trying to get through the tunnel.
“ Are you in? ” he asked him.
“ Cyrus, we’ve run into Shadowmen. ”
“ Can you get through? ”
“ I think so. I— ”
Cyrus’s heart skipped a beat. “ Jaem? ”
Essandra reached out and clasped his arm. “What is it?”
“ Jaem? ”
Cyrus’s horse shifted under him, feeling its rider’s fear.
“ Jaem? ”
Jaem’s panicked voice came back. “ They’re collapsing the tunnel! ”
“ Get out of there. ”
Jaem’s voice pitched higher. “We’re too deep! ”
“ Turn around and get out! ”
“ It’s coming down! It’s— ”