Chapter 23 Lily #2
I didn’t see what else happened because Callum pulled me away, made the world turn on itself before it grew still again. But then that momentary calm was disrupted by the calls of battle. I smelled the smoke from fires, the odor of rotting flesh, and the cries of the dying in battle.
I stared at the stone wall that separated the castle grounds from the rest of the city and knew those walls wouldn’t hold forever. Like a flooded river that washed the bank away, the enemy had infected the city. The king was probably already dead by now.
“I—I don’t know what to do.”
“Buy your men time.” Callum moved forward to the gates, which the soldiers continued to hold in battle.
“Command them to follow you. Lure everyone’s attention away from the sea.
Come on, this way.” He reached for me and grabbed me by the arm.
The world spun before I was pulled away again, somewhere behind the lines of soldiers next to the general.
Where we stood on the rampart, I could see the Barbarians coming into the city from the sea, ten thousand strong, burning and destroying everything in their path.
The general realized I was there and flinched because I’d appeared out of nowhere.
“I’m Queen Rothschild of the Southern Isles. King Ithaca has been executed by the Barbarians. If you don’t defeat the enemy, the Empire Colonies will be conquered by vampires. We need archers. We need cannons.”
He blinked like he didn’t know what to make of my instructions.
“Go.”
He heeded my command and hurried off to execute orders that he should have given himself. The Empire Colonies had been ambushed by the unexpected assault, so that meant King Ithaca had been so arrogant in his belief the alliance would be secured that he didn’t bother to plan for the alternative.
“Raise the dead,” Callum said. “There are enough bodies to add to their ranks.”
I saw the dead piled in the mud, their bodies stacked on top of one another in the middle of the battle and thrown off to the side. The battle had only begun because the crows were just gathering for the feast.
“Raise the dead and lead the resistance,” Callum said. “The soldiers will follow your lead.”
I’d only issued the silent command a handful of times, so the process was still foreign to me.
Mostly based on intuition, I focused my mind the way I had on that dead shark beneath the surface, felt the souls of the dead littered on the ground, and like I was lifting something from the ground, I raised them with my mind.
All together, bodies rose from the mud, just cut down so their corpses were fresh. Blood continued to ooze out of most of them like they were still alive. There was a momentary pause in the battle, the Barbarians steadying their swords to watch their fallen foes rise once more.
Callum grabbed me by the arm, and then my world whipped around before I stood just a few feet behind the front line, the sea of Barbarians in their intimidating armor cutting down the strangers that I fought for.
“Protect the queen,” Callum ordered.
The dead that I’d just raised advanced toward me, their movements slower than they would be if they still had beating hearts, and they formed a perimeter around me, their backs to me to limit the number of enemies that could reach me.
The pause in the battle continued, the Barbarians having witnessed the same phenomenon in Riviana Star, the same change in the tide that cost them the battle. But they didn’t flee this time. In fact, some of them smiled.
The difference in their eyes was there, the vertical slit that made them reptilian. It took me a moment to remember exactly where I’d seen it before, but then the realization struck me like a cannonball fired straight at my stomach.
Viper.
But they didn’t look quite like him, as if they were a different type of vampire.
About half of them appeared to be vampires, while the other half retained their mortality. They issued a barbaric war cry like they were orcs rather than men, and then continued the onslaught.
“They’re much stronger as vampires,” Callum said from beside me. “And remember, you stand in the mud. Your footwork is compromised. But you still have my strength and my sight.”
I unsheathed the blade from the scabbard across my back then gripped it by the hilt with a single hand. I was in a faraway place without my own soldiers to protect me, but the dead who protected me here somehow felt like kin.
“Xivin, show them the might of the Death Queen.”
The Barbarians rushed the front line, all of them hell-bent on reaching me, like I’d personally wronged them in the past. It took the heat off the other soldiers with wounded morale—and drew the attention to me.
They were fast, sprinting through the mud like it was no obstacle for them, and the line of dead that served me blocked most of the onslaught. Of course, a few made it through, and they rushed me like they would eviscerate me and then hang my body for all to see.
The first one reached me, and I met his blade with mine, gripping the hilt with two hands, and I parried his blade and struck it down. But the strength of the assault was undeniable. Without the strength of a god, I might have been overpowered.
My blade danced in a flurry, and he met my attacks with furious eyes.
Back and forth we battled, the mud difficult to navigate.
He had the upper hand because he was taller, and I couldn’t dance around like I normally could.
But I had the strength of a god, a constant rush of power that never waned, and I defeated him in a few swipes of my blade before he collapsed.
More came for me, several at a time, and Callum remained quiet as he watched, giving me no feedback as if I needed none.
My legs were able to slide through the thick mud because of the strength of his legs within my slender body, and I held my own against the vampiric Barbarians and bested them before they hit the earth.
“Move forward out of the mud,” Callum said from behind me.
We advanced away from the castle, pushing the battle back in our favor to dry land.
“The men follow your lead.”
Another wave of Barbarians hit us, and the battle continued, the dead that surrounded me acting as a funnel to prevent the Barbarians from attacking me all at once.
I had little experience fighting with the gifts Callum had granted me, and I was still surprised by the way my heavy sword felt like a butter knife and my opponents a warm piece of cheese.
My muscles didn’t burn with exertion like they should.
There was an endless supply of fuel that fed my body exactly what it needed to continue.
The fight carried on, and Callum was with me but silent like I didn’t need his aid, not when the dead protected me from all sides. But I could feel his presence even when I couldn’t see it, watching the battle from several angles, being the eyes in the back of my head.
All I focused on was the next Barbarian who came for me, but every time their body fell, I could see the endless line of men stretched out before me.
When I glanced around me, I saw all the dead soldiers piled up…
because they hadn’t been as successful in the battle as I had.
In fact, they were being massacred, even with the army of the dead that I’d raised.
I thought the battle had turned in our favor, but it had only turned in mine.
“I’m going to check on the fleet,” Callum said.
I’d just felled the next Barbarian, and I stopped to catch my breath, the dead stopping my new opponents so I had a reprieve.
“We should have bought the dead enough time to destroy their ships.” He came to my side. “I’ll be gone a few moments.” He didn’t ask for my permission with his words but his eyes. “Or we can flee now.”
“No, I’ll be fine.”
He gave a nod.
He wouldn’t leave me if he didn’t think I could handle it, so I wasn’t afraid of his momentary absence.
Then he disappeared, and it was just me and the dead.
More Barbarians broke through, determined to take me down like I was single-handedly responsible for the resistance—which wasn’t untrue. The men were easy to take down, but I knew that was only the case because I had my own personal guard and the strength of a god in my limbs.
Then a horn sounded, a horn that boomed so loud it brought the battle to a momentary standstill. The Barbarian who tried to cut off my head stepped back slightly, like the sound had significance to him.
What was happening?
When he stepped to the side, I could see what was coming from behind him. A line of enormous orcs, Behemoths, creatures that were seven and a half feet tall with arms thick with muscles. Superior to men is stature, all clad in battle armor, their eyes misshaped and unequal in size but bloodthirsty.
And they all stared at me like I was the target.
The men behind me all started to retreat, to leave me standing there alone to face them like I had a chance.
The army of the dead remained, including the ones that circled me, but against these menacing creatures, they wouldn’t hold.
The strength of a god would be enough to help me defeat them one-on-one, but with the desertion of the army, it was just me against at least three dozen.
And I couldn’t run.
I kept a straight face and refused to show fear even in the face of certain death, but I could feel my heart race as my pulse bounced off my thick armor. I waited for Callum to return, to grab me by the arm and usher me away from this bloodbath.
But he didn’t come.
The Behemoths came to a stop, bearing their rows of sharp teeth that could rip apart my armor. Drool came from the tips, and their misshapen eyes showed a demand for revenge when I hadn’t wronged them.
Then altogether, they released a single mighty roar, a roar so deep and potent that Callum must have heard it on the ships out to sea.