Chapter 54 – Isolde
ISOLDE
Icouldn’t see the king, though I knew he had to be responsible for what I was witnessing. How exactly Magnus had managed to create such a thing, however, I could not fathom. The great ice wall in the middle of the sea was a marvel.
And a great peril.
By the light of the ships and fire attacks, I sized up the wall that had devastated nearly half of our incoming ships.
Those at the back of the fleet were changing course, but ships didn’t turn so easily in the best conditions.
And if they managed to bend the sea to their will tonight there were still enemy vessels waiting to deal them damage.
Fae flew from the sinking vessels and soared around the wall only to land and immediately be engaged in combat. Others soared for the water and pulled our soldiers from the waves.
My stomach heaved, and the thunder booming in the night sky echoed my despair. I’d seen Magnus’s magic before. I’d been the recipient of one attack and witnessed others. None of the times he’d worked magic around me had been like this. None of his threats and attacks had been so powerful.
“We have to shatter it.” It was the only way I could see to give the rest of our fleet a path forward. Or at the very least, allow their magic to attack at a distance.
But I couldn’t leave Vale unattended in this cabin, and only someone stronger than him could truly keep him in check. By the same token, we needed every available fighter we could get. There was only one thing to do.
My shadows came to the surface more slowly and with greater effort than before. I had far better control than a week prior, but my endurance was lacking.
You will listen. Out with you. As many as will come.
Only two emerged. They’d have to do.
“Remain here and guard the male in that bed. If he awakes, knock him out, but using as little force as possible. If the ship begins to sink, save him and take him to a ship with fae loyal to me on it. Make sure he’s locked away there too.
Do not harm him in any other way.” I paused, trying to determine if I should add another command.
With shadow figures it was best to be explicit.
“Only those fighting for my side may enter.”
The shadows, created in only the faintest image of a person, nodded what I presumed were their heads.
I looked around them, prepared to give the order to move out, but the others were already standing at attention, their weapons drawn.
I took them in, my gaze lingering on Sigri’s fallen body last. Stars, how I’d failed her.
We exited the cabin to find Saga and Sayyida still at the door, weapons drawn and the hum of magic in the surrounding air. A mage lay dead on the deck, mere paces away.
“Saga, Vale is safe and being guarded by shadows, and I know you probably want to see him, but I need you.” I gestured to the ice wall. “Think you can help Thyra and me collapse that thing?”
She swallowed. “Maybe.”
I turned to Vidar and Sayyida. “You two stay with the ships. Try to attack vessels on the edges of the wall so the rest of our fleet can get through.”
The Virtoris siblings dashed off to give their crews orders.
“This way.” Saga led us to where the gryphons and pegasi waited, protected by a trio of sailors. Arava pushed the sailors out of her way and trotted towards me.
“I’m fine, girl.” I patted her muzzle before I mounted. “See that ice wall? We’re going to shatter it.”
“Saga, you should ride with me.” Qildor waved for her to take Sigri’s spot.
I saw the question of what happened to the dwarf in the princess’s eyes, but she didn’t speak it as she joined Qildor.
My pegasus beat her wings. “Caelo and Halladora, find Thyra. Saga and Qildor, with me.”
We soared for the wall, and my tether to the shadows watching over Vale stretched tight, a link to me, and an energy sink.
Wherever Thyra was, I hoped Caelo and Halladora would locate her quickly because the closer I got to the wall, the more certain I became that Saga and I would need assistance.
Up close, the black wall was thicker and more menacing than it appeared from a distance.
That wasn’t the only thing I found. Illuminated by torches and faelights, Magnus’s white hair stood out as we neared the wall.
He had positioned his ship just off to the side of the ice, lest the structure shatter or fall, no doubt.
And he wasn’t working alone. A handful of mages were using magic to keep the unnaturally shaped frozen water afloat.
King Magnus stood with them, his shaking hands above his head as he held the ice in its shape.
The king seemed not to have noticed when we stopped near the center of the wall.
Perhaps his creation took that much concentration, but I thought it equally likely that we were simply very high up and the sky so dark and rainy.
Most likely, Magnus would sense us attacking his creation before he spotted us.
I gripped Arava’s reins and wound the rough leather around my left hand as I thrust my right at the wall of ice.
Winter magic met winter magic. One formative, one destructive.
My power penetrated deep into the ice, and I pushed for a deeper cold, a temperature that would shatter the wall from within.
The wall shuddered and dipped in the water, but a wave of foreign magic came over my power and forced the wall back up.
The crack of ships against the ice reverberated from the other side.
Not new ships, but the ones that had already hit.
Ones that would continue to thrash against the wall until King Magnus released his wall.
Or until I break through.
Saga’s power joined mine, pummeling the ice in the form of frigid wind. She’d sensed what I was doing and sought to amplify my power.
Saga kept up with the winds, striking the wall again and again and again. Through the din of battle and storm and magical wind, King Magnus bellowed his daughter’s name.
A grim smile stretched my lips, and sweat mixed with rainwater landed on my tongue.
King Magnus treated others as toys. As rubbish.
Vale had been loyal to the king for so long, had loved him, and yet Magnus permitted Rhistel to brainwash my mate.
Let Magnus watch his daughter, his only trueborn child, work against him.
And let me end his reign. I forced more magic into the wall of seawater, and was rewarded with a crack appearing in the middle. The line grew vertically, stopping when it was as tall as me.
I gasped and released my magic, needing air. The wall was so very thick. To shatter it, I’d need to do that many more times.
“I’m here!” Thyra’s voice hit my ear as she soared next to me. Just in time too, as a blast of pure magic surged at us from below. We split and veered, and the mage attack missed us, but not by much.
Astril and Freyia had arrived with Thyra, the Balik brothers riding with the vampires. Caelo and Halladora took up the rear. The latter with a haunted look in her eyes from seeing her friend die in front of her. Sweeping in from the right was Tonna, the last Valkyrja, and her rider, Arie.
“Send winter magic into the ice. As cold as you can make it. We can shatter it from within, and Saga is pummeling it with wind.”
“Got it.” Thyra nodded. “Qildor, ward us. Everyone else, attack the mages below!”
They got into formation, and Qildor’s ward vibrated to life below us. It wouldn’t keep out every attack—the knight hadn’t had enough time to construct a ward of that quality—but at least it would dull the worst of them.
Thyra maneuvered Lasvin to Saga’s other side. Together we blasted the wall of ice. It shuddered, and the crack inside grew, but as hard as we worked, King Magnus held strong.
“Dig deeper!” Thyra growled as Lasvin swerved to avoid another attack, this one fire-based, flung at us from a ship at our other side. Our Valkyrja and their riders retaliated, raining down arrows and magic.
More cracks formed, the sound muffled by the battle. We hit the ice together. A web of lines spread out from the center, reaching to the edges, the boundary where the ice tapered off.
“Again!” I screamed.
Our magic soared out of us, and this time, I felt the break in the king’s powers. The fault in the wall gave way.
The ice cracked, split in half, and wavered, then began to fall. The first three large chunks rained down into the water and created waves. Smaller ones followed, and I hoped that some of them landed on the deck of the king’s ship. Or better yet, on Magnus himself.
“No more wind!” I screamed, and Saga backed off.
Breathing seemed nonexistent as we waited for the ice to choose a direction. And when the wall fell towards us, away from the ships we’d stolen to join the battle, I cheered.
The ships in the front line were rapidly taking on water. Five had already submerged to the point of no return. I prayed no one remained on board as the wall crashed to the water, churning the waves more viscously.
Beyond, the last few ships were closing in, turning sharply to avoid the wall and the debris of vessels. With the wall gone, their range attacks could hit enemy marks, and they wasted no time in sending those assaults at mage ships.
“Yes!” I shouted, but my glee was swallowed by a monstrous roar from above as a spray of fire lit up the night sky. Arava darted back, her eyes wide and rolling. Fear rushed through me too. At least until I caught sight of where the fire had come from. My heart soared.
Rynni had returned, and she’d used her fire strike to take down four enemy ships.