Chapter 21 #2
If they managed to execute such a heinous plan then I knew all of our people would be doomed. The false Earl would betray every one of them before anyone suspected anything, leading them into a trap I couldn’t fathom the depths of.
Heavy footsteps pounded stone at my back and fear spilled through me like oil dripping over rock. How had he managed to catch up to me?
I couldn’t move as fast as my pursuer. I couldn’t fight him off if he caught me. I could only run and keep running and ignore the pain which was begging me to stop.
I turned another corner then threw myself at the closest wall, magic parting the stone for me as if it were a curtain, my heart leaping as the footsteps thundered closer at my back.
Stone reformed behind me and an anguished sob caught in my throat. The main doors were close now, the courtyard beyond them heavily guarded for a final stand we all knew was coming.
I could make it. I would make it.
Every step onto my right leg sent a flash of blinding pain through my body, my pace slowing despite myself, my desperation the only thing keeping me upright at all.
Those pounding footsteps were behind me again as he threw open a door and sought me out again, and I cried out as I threw myself forward even faster.
Agony exploded through my hip and I fell just as a blast of ice speared through the air, crashing into the wall ahead of where I’d just been. Luck appeared to be favouring me and I shot a prayer to Virgo in thanks for her protection.
I turned wild, terrified eyes back at the man wearing my Earl’s face, throwing my hands up as he took aim for me again.
Magic exploded from me, a wall of dirt burying me instantly, wrapping me in its embrace and hurling me towards the doors which led out of the castle.
I rolled and tumbled within the ball of dirt, my cast sloppy and unruly but somehow doing what I needed it to as the pounding of magic struck the outside of it but failed to reach me.
I sped for the doors, water spilling through invisible cracks in my magic as the bastard chasing me worked to flood it and drown me inside.
I coughed and spluttered, mud caking me, water building up and taking the place of my air.
The impact of the doors bursting open sent more pain spearing through my body and the ball of mud exploded around me, sending me tumbling free of it and out into the courtyard beyond.
I coughed and wheezed as I raced into the heart of a legion of Stonebreakers who were retreating from the battlefield at the command of a wild and brutal man coated from head to toe in the blood of his enemies.
“Tarlord!” I yelled, my voice raw and jagged.
I pointed back to the castle doors and Tarlord’s gaze swept from me, bedraggled and mud-stained to the man who had been hunting me.
The Incubus’s face changed in the blink of an eye, the form of Earl Tarlord replaced with that of a man I’d never seen before. It happened so quickly I wasn’t certain anyone else had seen the form he’d stolen from my desires.
The real Earl yelled a command at his men and magic was fired into the castle, spears, vines and blades all rushing for the Incubus but he threw a wall of ice into their path.
The ice shattered under the weight of so many attacks but beyond it there was no one left to capture or kill.
“We retreat to Avanis,” Earl Tarlord barked, his voice that of the commander who so many warriors rode willingly into battle behind.
The legion moved quickly, racing across the courtyard towards the last of the great machines which remained above ground for our retreat.
I shook my head, calling out for them to pursue the Incubus, though my words fell on deaf ears as none so much as glanced my way.
Earl Tarlord turned back for me though, striding across the cobbles and taking my hand in his, hauling me to my feet.
“That Incubus stole your image from my mind,” I gasped, tears burning the backs of my eyes as I peered up at the man who had only ever shown me respect and kindness. And now I’d repaid him with this betrayal, offering up such a dangerous weapon into the hands of our enemies.
“You gave an Incubus my form?” Tarlord asked, his voice low and rough, his gaze fixed on mine as if we weren’t caught up in a desperate retreat on the losing side of a battle.
“I did,” I sobbed, clinging to his hand where he still held me, desperation surging in my soul. “I’m so sorry, I’m so–”
“An Incubus takes the form of the most desperate desire of your heart, Septa,” he said, dismissing my apology and forcing me to face the truth of that claim.
I blinked at him, my cheeks flaming at the realisation of what I’d just admitted to him.
To myself. I was married. He was my Earl.
I had no right to look at him the way I did, to think about him the way I often found myself doing.
I knew it wasn’t right. I’d tried to fight it.
I’d worked to pretend it wasn’t real. But now my truth had burst free of my lips without permission.
“I’m sorry,” I repeated quickly, my gaze dropping to the floor as I tried to back away but the pain in my leg had me stumbling instead and he caught my arm to steady me.
“You’re sorry?” he asked slowly.
The pounding of hundreds of boots surrounded us as the Avanis warriors made their retreat. The Raincarvers were at the gate. The Void was coming. We should have been running for our lives but instead his bloodstained fingers caught my chin and forced my eyes back up to his.
“Septa…”
His words fell away and I knew he was trying to think of something to say, some way to let me down kindly.
“I know it’s foolish,” I said quickly. “I know you’d never…I mean I’m so...and you’re… Besides I’m married and–”
Only that last protest seemed to register with him and his gaze darkened before he turned away.
“We need to leave this place. The Void will not be vanquished this day,” he said abruptly. “But we have learned much in this encounter and I’ll require your assistance in planning for our next run-in with her.”
My embarrassment was doused a little with the pride those words summoned. He valued my input, my opinion. That was far more than I had ever hoped to gain.
I nodded my agreement and we turned for the underbeast. Even the short distance between us and them seemed impossible as my hip barked in agony but Tarlord appeared to know that without me saying a word.
He lifted me into his arms and strode straight through the lines of his warriors, cradling me to his chest.
I said nothing. My heart was beating too fast to allow words to pass my lips anyway. But what a pair we must have made, the bloodstained warrior and the mud-stained scholar both leaving the battlefield as one.
I didn’t even see the projectile which was launched at the castle walls before it struck.
We were thrown away from it and I was sent tumbling out of my Earl’s arms as rock and dust exploded all around us. I hit my head hard, breath whooshing from my lungs, every piece of me singing with pain.
I coughed and spluttered as yells of panic broke out around us and the Raincarvers poured in through the great hole they’d blasted in the castle wall.
I spotted our Earl lying in a pool of blood, his eyes closed, body limp.
“Tarlord!” I screamed, trying to get up but something had fallen across my legs and was pinning me in place.
Three of our warriors ran into view and I sagged in relief as they spotted our Earl, inspecting him quickly and yelling among themselves.
“He’s still breathing!”
“Make a stretcher!”
“Hurry!”
I watched with my heart in my throat as they spun earth magic at a furious speed, a stretcher forming between them, vines hauling our Earl’s unconscious form onto it before they grabbed him and broke into a run for the final underbeast remaining above ground for our evacuation.
My relief was so palpable I only remembered to cry out for their help at the last moment. One of them turned, spotting me, hesitating.
But the Raincarvers raced into the courtyard between us and with a sorrowful look, he turned and sprinted with the others as they fought to get onto the underbeast with our Earl in tow.
A sob caught in my throat as I watched them diving through the open door, Tarlord safely making it inside. Spears of ice crashed into the metal hull as the door slammed shut behind them.
The underbeast blared to life, sinking into the dirt so fast that the tear which slid from my eye didn’t even make it to my jaw before they were gone. Without me.
And I was left to face the unlikely mercy of our enemies.