Chapter 17 #2
“Tess? Tess!?” I push her hair from her face, her brow covered in cold sweat.
Ah Makers, did she push herself too far?
I’ve never seen any Gifted wield like this.
Even bonded, what I’ve just witnessed is fucking impossible.
There’s no way she could do this without reaching the Brink, could she?
Frantically, I check the pulse racing at her throat, her heart beating wildly, but strong, in her chest. She’s ok, I think.
I still want to get her to Copeland as soon as possible to make sure, but she’s alive, at least.
“Sir, what…what just happened?” Lucian, my first lieutenant whispers at my back.
“Tell the men to hold until I say otherwise,” I tell him, still trying to figure out the answer to his question myself.
I feel him walk away and hear him roaring my command to the others, telling them to remain.
I know my army—not a single soul will move until I tell them to.
Soren prowls back and forth before me. “Is she alright?” I ask the cat.
He inclines his head to me and huffs, and I nod in thanks, accepting that she must be ok.
He wouldn’t be this calm otherwise. The stories say that once a pair is bonded, they can feel each other’s pain, and the loss of one is worse than death for the other. If he’s ok, then she must be as well.
I shift my focus to the other end of the tundra, to the frozen army there as I try and fail to understand. I gently lower Tess to the ground just as Dessa drops to her knees beside me. She looks at Tess worriedly, taking in the blood still smeared beneath her nose and across her cheek.
“Is she…?”
“She lives,” I say gruffly, throat tight. How close had she come to the Brink? How close had I come to losing her? And how in the absolute fuck did she just wield ice??
“Did you know?” I demand in a low voice, sharp as a whip.
“What?? No, of course not! She's the Flame of Lyanna. The Burning Beauty. The Fire Bitch. I don’t fucking understand, Kill.”
“Neither do I.”
“Well, either way, I’m glad you let her past your wall,” she says, looking toward the wall of ice across the field.
“I didn’t,” I whisper, and Dessa whips her head back to me.
“What??”
“I didn’t let her through. She broke it like it was nothing.
I didn’t even feel her here until I saw her.
” I shake my head, anger at myself rising.
I’d put my full power into my Gift to ensure any Gifteds fighting for Amon were rendered useless.
When I do that, all the energies just blend together, a steady hum forced beneath the might of my wall.
If I’d known she was there, I could have picked her Gift out and allowed it through like I do with our own Gifteds, but without that prior knowledge, it was just another stream of energy that I pushed down with the rest.
“She…broke through?” She glances back to Tess, unconscious on the ground. Dessa knows damn well that no one has ever been able to do such a thing, not even close. “Who is this woman?” she whispers in wonder. Who, indeed.
“Stay with her,” I say before I rise and bark for a few of the lieutenants to join me.
We march cautiously across the tundra to get a closer look at what’s happened.
It’s truly unreal. I glance up as we near the wall, staring at the sea of arrows suspended above our heads in what resembles the crest of a wave, curling back to meet the top of the wall.
I place a hand on the thick, smooth sheet of ice before me.
We can see through it, clear with a faint bluish tint, and within it are bodies.
Thousands of bodies, frozen in an instant where they stood, mouths open in silent, eternal screams.
“Great fucking Makers,” Malik mutters.
“You two, go around the edges and see how far back it goes, see if any of their troops remain on the back side.”
Phillipe and Callum incline their heads and take off.
“You know, I thought the Flame of Lyanna would yield, well, flames,” Nigel says, running his hand down the wall.
He is rarely upset by much, and it’s for that reason that he’s one of my best officers.
He’s taking even this in stride whereas I am trying extraordinarily hard to act as if I’m doing the same.
Inside, everything is complete chaos, every thought in my mind churning too quickly to grasp any single thought.
None of this makes sense. I have seen first-hand the ruin left behind after Tess’ work.
Scorched fields and ashen forests and great floods after an entire hillside of snow was melted too quickly.
So…she has two Gifts? I’ve never heard of such a thing but perhaps it has to do with being bonded with Soren.
But even the legends of familiars never told of them bestowing a second Gift.
“Do we just…leave them?”
“Not much else we can do,” I say, turning to walk back toward my own army, leaving the forever frozen one behind.
“Send missives to Barony and the rest of the Alliance, tell them that Amon’s forces here were defeated without a single drop of blood shed.
Tell them that is the power of our might and they should plan accordingly.
Have Ryker send messages with his ravens to all of Hypathia.
I want rumors of this victory spreading like wildfire.
” I glance up and see a silver raven circling overhead and know that Alexi will get word back to Ryker before my men will have a chance.
I wonder what he’ll think of all of this, if there are any records of two Gifts in their archives.
“Yes, sir,” Malik nods, running off.
“Nigel, get the troops back to camp. I’ll meet with you all later after I’ve…figured out some things.”
I gather Tess into my arms and though I’m confused beyond measure, I send a prayer of thanks up to any Maker that might be listening for the woman in my arms.