Chapter 53
Ryker
“Trolls,” I repeated, staring at Sylvester like either he or I had gone insane. “She brought trolls into the city.”
He just cawed in reply, sounding as confused as me.
I ran my hands down my tired face, trying to ignore the blood I hadn’t managed to wash off the last battle.
If the trolls had agreed to march and seek shelter among people, the crater’s bleed was truly dire.
“Who knew the she-beast was so friendly.” Elysia huffed, as if she hadn’t been worried about Allie when her energy had yanked on mine.
“Creatures will always be smarter than us,” Zandyr muttered. He stared at the tired Blood Brotherhood warriors trudging through camp, shoulders caved and lips trembling with prayers nobody had bothered to answer today. “The animals have retreated from this area. They can feel death approaching.”
It wasn’t approaching.
It was already here.
The Serpents kept coming at us in unnatural droves.
Mercifully, their snakes hadn’t yet crossed the river, but Kleonos had taken great pleasure in bringing them right up to the edge, jaws snapping for blood.
But the Serpent soldiers…they moved like no mortal should.
A vicious vigor helped them face the relentless river currents as if they ran through grass. Their bodies withstood too many of our blows. Their jade-covered armour was more for show and intimidation than protection, so something else had turned them into relentless killers.
Something sinister.
Sylvester waited for me to unclasp my baldric and set it down on the table, next to the useless maps filling up the entire war tent. Blood dripped from the tips of the daggers, the pommels too spent and full to absorb any more.
It still wasn’t enough to push the Serpents back.
He flapped his wings and cawed again.
My hands froze.
My eyes sparked.
“They did what?” I bellowed.
Sylvester cawed again.
I braced my hands against the table. The battle lust still raged through me, but the swell of anger came from thousands of miles away.
“What?” Elysia asked. “What did they do?”
“The Northern Clans have attacked the crater,” I said. “Three times.”
That we knew of.
This meant the first attack had taken place while I was just leaving Solkar’s Reach–or was still there.
Elysia jumped off the table she’d sat on as soon as we’d entered the tent, horrified gaze frozen at nothing.
“But…you protected the entrance,” she said.
“They rappelled from the walls.” I righted myself and began pacing.
Another remnant from Allie’s essence. I finally understood.
She had so much energy coursing through her at any given time, she needed a release.
“This is a coordinated attack. Here, on the battlefield, and there, against the city they think is defenseless.”
Not while Allie protected it.
But she was one soul, with no army.
My stomach tightened in knots.
“We need to send word to Phoenix Peak and Frostfall Reach,” Zandyr said, not moving. “They will come for the Capital as well.”
“Not unless we beat them first,” Elysia said and turned, as if waiting for Calyx to agree with her.
But Calyx had been sent away from the battlefield this morning, after he’d kicked and screamed that he wasn’t useless, and he’d fainted for the third time. Five warriors were taking him back to his home–I prayed for them once he woke up.
Her shoulders deflated as she kept staring at Calyx’s empty chair.
“We aren’t beating them,” Zandyr said. “They know all of our movements. Where we hid our traps. They know more than our own warriors.”
“Could they have used an Oracle from the Shuddering Isles?” she asked. “Those witches have foreseen your wife’s fate, why not the destiny of this war?”
Zandyr shook his head. “They can only see how a human’s soul can rearrange reality. None of them have entered my mind in years.”
“They never even bothered with me.”
“I don’t let their magic come close to me,” I said, half of my attention on the crater.
Breached.
Attacked.
Vulnerable.
Danger on the battle front and danger at home, and I couldn’t see a way to truly protect either of them.
If I pulled my warriors from the war and rushed them back home, the Blood Brotherhood would lose.
Then we’d spend the rest of our short lives futilely fending off attack after attack from the Serpents and the Northern Clans.
The roads were too dangerous now to evacuate the city–and Allie couldn’t leave.
But the crater needed to be protected.
The decision threatened to rip me apart.
“Then how are they one step ahead all the time?” Elysia growled in frustration. “We’ve taken every precaution.”
“Perhaps that is the problem,” Zandyr said, his voice turning dark and sharp. “We’ve been on the offensive. We need to strike where they least expect it.”
“How? We take one step on their bank, those reptiles will gulp us up. Small wonder they haven’t done it yet.”
“It’s not a wonder.” Zandyr tilted his head, calculating. “It’s a strategy. They’re keeping them safe. For now.”
“If they need protecting, it means they’re vulnerable,” she said stubbornly. “We just need to come up with a way to take them down.”
“Have you found any useful information in that journal?”
“None,” Elysia hissed. “The beasts from the Cold Blooded War weren’t magicked to this size.”
“Keep searching.” He clasped his hands behind his back. “We’re getting slaughtered.”
“What if there isn’t a way?” she asked. “What if they’re impervious to any magic we know?”
Neither of us replied.
“Calyx would have said something clever,” she muttered and kicked at the floor. “But he’s not here. Soryn isn’t here. And I can’t be in here with you two scowling at nothing after–after today.”
Her eyes blinked fast. I pretended not to notice the way they’d reddened.
We’d lost too many souls and hadn’t even had time to mourn them.
She swallowed deeply and tucked her chin, hiding her face. “I’ll go over the journal pages again. Maybe I’ll come up with a bright idea.”
“I have no doubt,” Zandyr said.
The second she stormed out of the tent, he turned to me, his cold gaze stopping me in my tracks. “I know what you’re thinking.”
I squared my shoulders and faced him. “You know I need to go.”
Exhausted as I was, I could push my body to its limits and reach the crater faster than any warrior could march.
“I need to leave,” I said, half of me protesting, the other half elated. “I’ll take whatever traps and runes we’re not using and spread them around the rim. I’ll be back tomorrow. The Serpents have already attacked today, they have to be worn out as well.”
Zandyr cursed under his breath. “Why don’t you just ask The Huntress how grave the danger is?”
I frowned. “Ask?”
“Yes.” He stepped closer. “I know it’s your business, but we don’t have time for pleasantries. If you’re still not speaking, how is her energy right now? Scared? Powerful? Hopeful?”
I clenched my jaw and stared at him.
“I–” My nostrils flared. “I can’t feel her.”
There was no magical switch I could activate and suddenly be enveloped in that intoxicating essence of hers.
“Don’t pretend with me, I know what having a true mate is like,” he said. “I was there after Calyx fainted.”
When I’d first truly felt the brush of Allie against my mind.
I’d suspected, but that was the moment I’d truly felt–and it had explained everything. The worry, the heat, the pulse beating against my spine.
But now there was only a cold absence where her flutter had been.
“It seems you don’t know,” I said slowly. “Because it’s not like that.”
He raised one of his brows, giving me a withering look.
“That was the only time I felt her,” I said at last, reluctant even then.
But that wasn’t the whole truth, was it? Before I’d left for war, there had been a strange pulse pulling me back. I thought the crater was calling me home.
It had been Allie.
Even now, a strange sensation tugged at the base of my spine. That must have been Allie–or the part of her that didn’t want to gouge my eyes out.
“You–” Zandyr licked his lips, sounding suddenly cautious. “You can’t hear her thoughts?”
“No.” A bizarre feeling overtook me, one I’d felt only a handful of times. Envy. It seared my veins and darkened my mind. “We can’t talk like you and Evie.”
What if we never could? What if that day had been an anomaly and I was mistaken about our connection?
He looked at me strangely. “I force myself not to.”
“You–” I bit down on my molars to keep from screaming. “You have this wonderful gift and you’re not using it?”
“She doesn’t want me to,” he said defensively. “It’s the least I can do after…”
“After you broke her heart,” I said when he trailed off.
He gave me another cold look. “Am I to believe things are going well with The Huntress after the wedding?”
“Don’t.” I raised my open palm, unflinching. “You and your secrets are the reason I have endangered my relationship with her. For the good of the Blood Brotherhood.”
His gaze dropped.
“And now you’re asking me to not rush home when I know my people are in danger–” When Allie was in danger. “–and to carry on fighting while half of me dies with guilt. Don’t, Zandyr. This can only end badly.”
We stared at each other, two of Malhaven’s fiercest fighters caught in a battle neither could win. Because winning would mean the defeat of our friendship.
“You’re right. I’m sorry,” he said at last and pinched the bridge of his nose. “If you can’t communicate with her, you can’t know what’s really happening in the crater.”
Behind us, Sylvester cawed, offended.
“In real time,” Zandyr said, frustrated. No sane person could witness this war and not be affected, but he and I needed to keep the cracks hidden. If we broke, the warriors would follow. He braced his hands on his hips with a sigh. “You need to go home.”
“I know.” Even as I said it, I was relieved.
Tension between Zandyr and me could only lead to defeat.
I reached for my baldric. If I left now, I’d get to Solkar’s Reach by nightfall, check the rim by moonrise, and hopefully get to rest two hours before rushing back.
And I’d get to see Allie.
“Take all the traps you can carry,” Zandyr said. “They’re useless against the snakes, anyway.”
I shook my head. “They can’t be as imperviou–”
The ground shook.
Sylvester screeched and flapped his wings as the entire camp ground rattled.
We’d barely rushed out of the tent when a horrified scream broke.
“The snakes have crossed the river!”