Chapter 22
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO
It was over. Cinder Vale was ours and as I hurried through the ruins of the citadel with Ransom at my side and a ring of warriors closing in around me, I could hear cries of surrender up ahead.
Father had led his ranks that way. As we stepped through the tall gate that had been half ripped off its hinges into a courtyard of stone at the base of the new castle, I saw them.
Lines of Avanis warriors all on their knees.
I stole the magic from them swiftly but it was clear they were done regardless.
Their faces were pale, their eyes downcast, defeat written into their faces that spoke of pain.
But this was a mark of what was to come now.
More of our enemies would surrender in future and it would happen easier and easier once they knew our army was undefeatable.
Father strode in front of the rows of around fifty warriors who had laid down their weapons, barking out a victory speech that echoed all around the courtyard and carried to the ears of our army.
I shared a hopeful look with Ransom, my heart finally finding a steadier beat. This might be the beginning of the end of the war, our first true victory.
I noted some civilians among the surrendered warriors, those who had perhaps been brave enough to attempt to build a new home in foreign lands.
A woman and her partner held hands, heads bowed, but eyes lifted in a show of hatred towards Commander Rake pacing in front of them.
I couldn’t even take in the words he was spewing about our greatness, our invincibility.
He prattled on while I crept toward the front row and felt Calcifiend rearranging himself for a better view on my shoulder, peeking out at the Stonebreakers before us.
Father finally finished his speech and I walked to his side with my chin raised. “Our mercy will help build the peace we’re hoping for one day,” I said.
His eyes narrowed on me, a harshness to them that I hadn’t witnessed since he’d noted my power.
“Mercy?” he spoke the word like it was something dirty.
Something that didn’t belong on his tongue.
“These people are less than rats.” He spat in their direction and a jolt went through my heart that made me back up.
The venom in him was brimming to the surface, the spines along his arms bristling menacingly.
He was stained with blood from the kills he’d made this day and it suited him all too well.
“They will fall in line now that they know they cannot defeat us,” I said fiercely. “You must see them as people under our rule now. People whose needs must be catered for.”
“Silence,” Rake snarled, warning coating the word.
“No daughter of mine will cater to the needs of vermin. We will win this war with an iron fist. We will strike fear into the hearts of all those villages, towns and cities we are yet to claim. They will bow to us because they know we will not be merciful when the day of retribution comes.” He threw out his palm and a curved blade of ice burst from it, spearing along the line of the surrendered people of Avanis and slitting their throats open before it sped back along the other rows.
Screams could barely escape their mouths before it was done.
All of them slumping forward, clutching at the gaping wounds, blood pouring in a terrible, unstoppable wave.
“No!” I yelled in horror, falling to my knees before a woman who was trying to stop the bleeding, clasping at the wound in an effort to save her. But there was no undoing this. Death was coming like a plague and I was helpless to keep it at bay.
Father caught me by the back of the neck, dragging me upright and shoving me into the arms of Ransom.
“Take her away,” Father snarled and Ransom dragged me backwards through the crowd of Cascadians, my brother meeting my gaze with equal revulsion mirrored in his eyes at our father’s act.
I fought him for all the good it would do, his strength outmatching mine as always and as a cheer went up from the warriors around me, I gave up fighting.
Instead, I shrank from the monsters around me, taking in their jeering faces, the victorious smiles upon their lips.
How they applauded such bloody, cruel deaths of unarmed Fae.
Bile crawled up my throat, rage ripening in my gut and burning a passage through my veins.
“How could he?” I rasped, feeling so alone in it all, forgetting my brother had hold of me.
“He has no heart,” Ransom answered in a barely audible whisper. “It rotted away long ago. I admired him for that once. How ruthless he could be.”
“And now?” I looked up at him, throat tight, muscles knotted.
“Now I’m not sure of anything anymore.”
“Neither am I,” I agreed, leaning into him instead of away. Preferring his company to all others around us who beat their fists in the air and called for more bloodshed. And it was me who had secured their victory. I was the reason those people had been butchered.
More Avanis captives were dragged before my father by a group of his favoured warriors and my gaze lingered on one woman among them with flowing red hair. She was covered from head to toe in mud, her dress torn and bloodied. She looked broken, desperate and my heart shattered at the sight of her.
“Take these prisoners to the White Mare,” Father commanded in his booming tone. “We’ll have them uttering the secrets of their Earl’s plots by nightfall.”
Ransom pulled me along faster, his arm latched tight around me while reality left me spiralling.
I wasn’t fighting him now. I wanted to get away from this place of bloodshed.
As far away as I could. And yet I had no idea where I would go.
Where I belonged apart from here. Somehow, after years of despising Ransom, I found he was the only person left on this battlefield I could stomach.
Though perhaps there had been one more. But Mavus hadn’t reappeared. If he’d survived this fight, he’d most likely headed for Wandershire and we’d soon meet again to lay plans for the night of the blood moon. It seemed that was the only thing in the world which I had left to hold onto.