77. Ryker
Ryker
My warriors and I stood between the fortress and the Northern army, a fierce, impenetrable wall.
Bodies littered our once pristine streets. Some still moved and groaned, among them some of our own, healers flitting between them. The stench of blood imbued the air, but now it was flecked with hints of sour ointments and bitter salves.
Among them, I saw a familiar skirt swishing about.
Mrs. Thornbrew darted from healer to healer, her satchel of herbs bouncing against her waist. She was supposed to be hidden and safe with the other civilians, not jumping over blood splatters.
Geryll had snuck between my troops, now she was testing the same fate.
I clenched my jaw against the spike of dread.
But I couldn’t react more than that.
I even turned my gaze away.
Any sign of vulnerability could be used against me–especially as Beren, Lioran, and Edrin emerged from the trees, safely tucked behind their soldiers, like the cowardly, pompous bastards they were.
Judging by their pristine armours, all polished and shiny, none of them had fought and were not planning to. But they loved to stride and show off the uneared golden emblems on their shoulders.
They didn’t even look at their fallen soldiers, walking over their bodies. Edrin even had the nerve to scowl at them for blocking his path.
The three of them did not deserve to live.
But what truly made my blood boil, beyond any remedy my power could afford me, was seeing Nadya trudge right behind them.
She’d abandoned her leather armor in favor of the scaled chainmail the Northern Clans loved so much.
Furs for chains.
From up above, Allie’s energy blistered with the same mix of disappointment, but hers was tinged with more resentment than I could muster for someone who’d grown up under my eyes.
What she felt was irritation and anger.
All I had left to give Nadya was grief.
For what she’d done, what she could have been, and the grim end she was so eager to get to, one that I couldn’t stop her from.
Nadya had made her choice and she truly did have to live with it, whether she wanted to accept it or not.
She couldn’t even look at me, holding onto Francisca for dear life and scowling at the same cobblestones she’d run over countless times.
In comparison, Beren set his dark gaze on me and didn’t let go.
“Nephew.” He raised his arms to the sides, the small golden chains between the emblems jiggling. “I admit, you surprised me tonight.”
I remained silent and furious.
“Hiding in the civilian homes was a nice touch,” he went on. “How’d you come up with that?”
“We figured you’d try exactly what we would never do. And you rose to the shameful occasion.” We knew they’d hit the civilians first. As revenge, show of power, prisoners to sway my hand, so many awful motives to choose from.
So we’d prepared.
“Yes, Nadya said you would protect the civilians above all else.” Beren looked back at her; she still refused to meet my eyes, but stood there defiantly, gripping her axe like she wanted to throw it at someone’s head.
Mine, most likely. “Except, I suppose, your Huntress. Where is she, by the way? She promised to face me herself. I’d be disappointed–”
The wind howled around us, sparking blue, as Allie’s voice reverberated all around, infinite and overpowering. “Don’t be, Beren. I can see you.”
Lioran flinched, eyes darting toward the sky as his shoulders tensed. The Northern soldiers cursed prayers into the night.
A corner of my mouth ticked upward. “I wouldn’t press my luck with the Huntress if I were you.”
In the fortress, more clangs and rustle echoed, as if an entire battalion rushed around.
Beren grimaced, even as his fingers twitched. Then his gaze dropped to the trolls breathing heavily next to us.
“Aligning yourself with beasts.” His top lip curled. “Are you that desperate?”
An arrow hissed through the sky, landing at Beren’s feet, too fast to catch its origin. He jumped back, scowling.
“The only beasts I see here are you,” I said. “And the only ones who are desperate. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have asked for parlay. So speak.”
“Very well.” Beren straightened his shoulders. “Beasts or not, you’re outnumbered.”
From inside the fortress, I heard Dax’s venomous laugh.
“Be serious, Beren.” I had wounded warriors to help and frightened civilians in hiding, not time for grandiose games. “You have the numbers, we have the cause. One of my warriors is more dangerous than ten of yours. We have something worth fighting for, not just orders.”
My gaze swept over the Northern army.
“And we will fight. We will take you down with us if we must.” My voice whipped through the night. “Those who survive have to take their chances against The Huntress. And you all know what happened to the soldiers near the rim.”
A visible current shifted through the soldiers. They didn’t back down, but the hold on their weapons loosened.
Edrin’s gaze hardened. Lioran began breathing heavier, eyes not leaving me. If he wanted to try his weird Northern mind tricks, I wouldn’t give him the opportunity.
“Don’t believe him.” Nadya picked the wrong moment to speak. “He’d do anything to avoid the death of his own people.”
I finally looked at her. The one who’d stolen so much from me and wanted to hurt me more. All I felt was pity. “You are no longer welcome here, Nadya. You’ve done your best to destroy this place. You have failed. Don’t embarrass yourself now.”
Her jaw tightened and her shoulders shook. But she still didn’t meet my gaze.
Good.
“The people of Solkar’s Reach will fight to protect this land until the very last one of us,” I went on. “With or without me.”
My warriors yelled, raising their weapons and smacking their shields. The trolls joined in with their own otherworldly roars.
None of us were backing down.
“But you do want to protect them.” Beren tilted his chin up. “I’m giving you the perfect way to do it. We’ll retreat.”
Danger cracked through the air. “On what conditions?”
“You abdicate.”
I raised my brows. “Is that all?”
“And you give us The Huntress.”
Pure fury rushed through me. My primal instincts screamed out for blood as images of me impaling Beren’s head swam in my mind.
“Never,” was all I said, that lone word cutting.
Lioran cleared his throat. “Ryker, it’s best if you–”
“It’s best if you leave.” I unsheathed a dagger from my baldric. Blood swam in its pommel. “And promise me neither you, nor your soldiers will ever return. Or you will not be walking out of here on your own feet.”
Lioran clamped his mouth shut.
Beren sighed. “You were always too stubborn for your own good.”
He raised his hand and waved at someone in the back of the army. Instantly, small metal spheres flew through the sky. They missed the warriors and trolls completely, instead shattering the windows on the first floors of the fortress.
As soon as the shards of glass hit the ground, Beren, Lioran, and Edrin ran away like the entire Blood Brotherhood army was on their heels.
Terror instantly took hold of me.
A deadly hiss spread through the fortress.
In the next breath, sickly green mist began to pour from the windows.
The poison.
“Retreat!” I yelled, backing away as the mist flooded the steps with unnatural speed.
Beyond the trees, more hisses erupted. The Northern soldiers began to scream in agony.
“Go to the civilians! Cover your faces!” I yelled at my warriors.
Inside the fortress, Dax swore loudly.
The healers picked up wounded warriors and raced away. But there were still so many writhing on the ground as the fog approached. Mrs. Thornbrew tried to run away, but she kept tripping on the cobblestones and bodies.
Chaos.
Fatal chaos.
The trolls roared, unnerved. They jumped out of the mist’s way, but tried to clobber it. I raced next to them, swinging my arms to point them after the warriors.
“Run after them!” I yelled. “Get to safety!”
They murmured and grunted at me.
The poison drew closer, covering the bodies of the fallen Northerners, now forever lost. It nipped at my heels, forcing me to back away.
A blue tendril dropped from the roof of the fortress, gentle and light. It captured the creatures’ attention and floated after the warriors.
It was enough to get them mercifully moving.
I looked up at the roof, where Allie had abandoned her hiding spot next to the tower. We’d readied a rope she could shimmy down on in case of an emergency, but the fortress was surrounded with mist.
She had no safe place to scale down to.
My gaze raced over the windows and the closest trees. If I picked enough speed and jumped onto them–
“Don’t even think about it,” she murmured in my mind.
“If you think I’m leaving you alone, you are indeed as crazy as the legends say.”
“Save the wounded warriors,” she said. “We have another plan.”
“We?”
As we argued, Dax appeared in the door of the tower, fighting with all his might to drag a piece of canvas behind him.
My stomach dropped when I realized what he was carrying.
What he wanted to use with my future wife.
The blasted wings that had almost killed him.