CHAPTER 41 ALEK
ALEK
As soon as the scraver starts ripping Karyl apart, Callyn whirls and presses herself against the center of my breastplate.
The queen is beside me, gripping my armor, but she’s still staring.
She’s gasping against her hand, almost keening at the violence of it.
I catch them both automatically, but I can’t do anything but stare.
It’s graphic and horrifying and quite possibly the most vicious thing I’ve ever seen.
Especially because the Truthbringers fill the creature with arrows before he’s even done.
Within seconds, Karyl is dead. The scraver is dead. Their bodies lie in a mangled heap in front of the horses.
The Emberish soldiers have surged up beside me and Callyn and the queen. They all have weapons drawn, as if the fight has shifted, as if there’s some possible way they can forge ahead and save their king.
But they can’t. The king has still fallen. So have Tycho and Jax. Their bodies lie in the lane, too.
And there’s still an army of Truthbringers to contend with. The queen’s shaking breath is very loud in the silence of the forest.
“Callyn,” I murmur. “We need to get the queen to safety.”
But as I say it, horns sound to our west— and then to our east. I snap my head up. I haven’t heard that sound in years. Beside me, the queen draws a sharp breath.
The soldiers exchange glances. “What is that?” says Sephran.
“Battle horns,” says Callyn. The shock in her voice echoes what I feel.
“The army,” I say.
“My army,” says the queen. She swipes at her cheeks, peering between the trees.
The horns sound again, so close they’re nearly on top of us.
They sound as if they’re coming from everywhere.
Ahead of us, on the road, the Truthbringers are beginning to scramble.
Their horses are whirling and bolting in every direction, trying to flee.
It’s been years since Syhl Shallow was at war, but most everyone of fighting age knows what those horns mean.
And then I see the soldiers pouring between the trees, ready for battle.
At the front is Nolla Verin, the queen’s sister, shouting orders like a general.
“You are surrounded!” she calls. “You will surrender to the Queen’s Army.
If you run, you will be shot.” She must see the bodies on the ground because she stops short and stares, then gestures.
“Lieutenant! That’s the king! Find the field surgeon.
Get the—” She breaks off, draws a bow over her shoulder, and shoots.
Fifty yards away, a Truthbringer drops to the ground.
Without missing a beat, she scans the grounds, then looks back over her shoulder.
“Nora! Show me where to find my sister.”
Callyn gasps.
Because there, riding up behind Verin, is Nora, still astride Teddy, little Princess Sinna tied in front of her, just like before.
I let out a breath. “Your sister,” I say softly, because I can’t quite believe it. “She went to fetch Nolla Verin.” I shake my head a little, staring. The queen has already begun striding forward, the soldiers following. I’m a bit light- headed, but I give Callyn’s hand a tug. “Come on.”
“Do you trust this?” Callyn says.
For a moment, my usual cynicism kicks in, and I want to be suspicious. But then I look at this massive militaristic response, and I realize that all of my suspicion was probably my own guilt all along.
“I do,” I say. “Also, you were right. I should have listened to you.”
She peers up at me in the summer heat. “I was right?”
I give her a smile. “Your sister was the key to surviving the battle.”
But then I take another step, and my vision goes spotty.
“Alek?” she says. “Alek!”
I don’t know if I’m falling or if the world turns upside down. All I know is that I give her hand a squeeze, and then the sky goes dark.