Chapter 16 – Neve
NEVE
Twelve orcs loomed, double Vale’s size, their eyes wild with the idea of captives, and fangs gleaming in the light of the setting sun. Acting on instinct for Anna, I used my winter magic to drive her horse back, far away from the menacing fae.
“Caelo, Neve, up!” Vale shouted, his wings teasing through his cloak slits.
I followed his orders, a shudder thundering through my body as my wings hit the cold air.
With three beats of my wings, I pushed through the physical discomfort and soared upward until we were above the trees.
Out of reach, I surveyed the area and exhaled a sharp breath.
Anna’s horse ran backwards, just as I’d intended.
Even better, our horses followed hers, putting a great deal of distance between them and the horde.
Still, we had to act quickly before the orcs ran after her.
Anna was brave and learning to defend herself, but she remained an easy mark.
“Divide,” Vale said. “Neve, stay with me. Caelo, you take the right.”
On the right, five orcs lumbered down the road after my best friend, leaving seven for Vale and me. Caelo soared down and fought, placing his body between the orcs and Anna.
“Force, take the young female and male next to her. I have the rest.”
“I can do more!” I shouted as I dove.
“Do as I say,” Vale shot back.
I gripped my sword, annoyed, though he was probably right. What was giving me this surge of confidence?
I’d trained for weeks against some of the best warriors in the realm, but not orcs. While I had seen these creatures in Guldtown, back when I was na?ve and unable to protect myself at all, these ones seemed larger. Harder too. I needed to not get overly confident. I had not proved myself yet.
Now is the time.
I directed my attention to the closer male orc, the second smallest of the bunch, and blasted him with frost. He hadn’t seen my powerful magic coming, nor guessed that his feet would be unable to move.
The male snarled, pulling and tugging against the frost that continued to build around his legs, creeping toward his torso.
I flew down, sword arching his way, but he just batted my blade to the side with a dull sword of his own.
Pivoting, I flipped over the orc, coming to hover behind him, where I ended the short-lived fight with a slice across his neck.
Blood spattered the snow, though thanks to the frost, the orc’s body remained standing, frozen in place.
I barely had a moment to catch my breath when the female ran at me, her blade arching for my head.
She growled as our swords met in the air.
The orc was far stronger than me, and pushed me back, closer to the trees.
I understood her motivation. Get me away from Vale and Caelo so they wouldn’t be able to help.
She thought I was the easiest mark, which if we only counted swordplay and other weaponry, she was right.
However, against most fae, my magic was unrivaled.
In an instant when her sword pulled back, I leapt closer to the trees, putting a bit more space between us as I sprayed her with icicles.
Two lodged into her chest, and blood spurted across the white snow.
The orc’s eyes widened for a split second before she fell backwards. Dead.
I spun, taking in the others only for my heart to drop into my belly. In mere minutes, the orcs injured both Vale and Caelo. The former to an arm, the latter to his side and leg. They’d both taken down two orcs as well, but with their injuries, they were moving more slowly. I needed to help them.
My wings unfurled, but before I could catch the air, a net tumbled from the sky and covered me. I gasped as my cold powers receded, diminished to practically nothing inside me.
A low, rumbling laugh came from behind. The net pulled tight. “Caught you.”
I strained at the cage of webbing around me, trying to rip it. My blade slashed, but though the material was as supple as water, it did not tear, and that’s when my heart began to race.
This net wasn’t normal, and though it differed from how I’d seen the material used before to cover Rhistel’s hands, I knew this had to be made of ice spider silk. That was why I could not feel my magic. The web was negating my powers.
The orc, a massive male with fangs as long as my pinkie protruding from his lower jaw, lumbered out of the trees. I slipped my blade through the net, trying to pierce his chest.
He retaliated, hurling a dagger at me. The bastard had impressive aim too, for the blade slid right through a hole in the net and grazed my right cheek.
“Ahh!” My hand went to the injury and in doing so, my sword slid backwards into the net. Cursing my reaction, I fumbled for my weapon, but before I could pick it up, the orc was in front of me.
With a hand as large as a dinner plate, he grabbed me by the neck and lifted me. I kicked air, struggling for freedom.
“Neve!” Vale shouted.
Dead gods help him, he sounded breathy. Weakened.
I reached for my powers before remembering that they weren’t accessible.
My heart raced. The orc laughed again, the sound hideous, the stench of his breath rancid.
He slapped me across the face, and my teeth sang, but as he pulled a dagger from his belt, I ignored the pain and kicked at it with all that I had.
He slammed his knee upward, ramming it into my arse. I groaned, and in that instant, he slipped the dagger through the net, slicing my thigh. I screamed and gripped the net.
How was I going to get out of this?
My answer came in the form of Vale, who dropped behind the orc and slammed the butt of his sword into the orc’s neck.
Our enemy’s knees buckled, but he was too powerful to fall. He whirled and used the dagger he’d sliced me with to cut Vale across his chest.
I fell with a scream, my hands plunging into the snow after the sword. Some of my blood had mixed with the snow, wetting my hands. I fumbled with the blade, trying to grasp it properly, to help Vale to—
My blade glowed with a deep black light, like a dwarf had set it to a strange dark fire in a mysterious forge.
“By the Fates, what’s happening?” I whispered, staring down at the blade.
As if in answer, whispers hissed through the woods as a plume of black smoke—no! A shadow so dark it had to have been born in the darkness that separated the stars—blossomed from the zuprian steel. My throat tightened as the shadow took the form of a faerie.
“Your bidding?” It spoke in an ancient voice, one that set my heart to racing.
Bidding? Sassa’s Blade was one of legends. Legends I was, admittedly, largely ignorant of, but if such a thing were possible, surely Vale would have mentioned shadows emerging from a blade. Another grunt from my mate quickly ceased my wonder. I looked past the shadow.
Vale knelt all fours, now trapped beneath a net too. A second orc appeared from the woods and sneered down at my mate. The first massive orc stood over him, sword in hand, dripping with blood.
Where in all the nine kingdoms were these orcs getting nets made of ice spider silk?! Wasn’t the material expensive beyond measure?
“Why did you summon me?” the shadow spoke again, irritation riddling his tone.
“I didn’t. I—wait, can you do anything I need?”
One curt nod.
“Kill the orcs. That one first.” I pointed to the orc standing over Vale, sword now raised. “Go!”
“I need blood.” He nodded to the pool in the snow.
I paled. The slash on my thigh had been shallow and between that and my quick healing, it had already ceased bleeding. I’d have to open a vein. “How much?”
“For this many? Much.”
I took my sword and cut across my already injured thigh, using the tear in my trousers to better gain access to the flesh.
Fresh blood welled, and I nearly dropped the sword from the pain, but pinned it against my leg.
I’d stopped short of the inner thigh, knowing to cut there would be death, but a sickening amount of blood still poured.
I swallowed, but a second later, the blood vanished.
Not in the snow, but into the air? Impossible.
The blade glowed again, giving me another option. One I never would have guessed. Had my blood gone into the blade?
The question died, however, as the shadow soared to the orc—and flying straight through his body, left a hole the size of my head in the orc’s torso.
I gasped, but the grotesque killing was not the only reason for my shock.
The moment the shadow killed the orc, a tug came at my leg, a familiar sensation.
It felt as though a vampire was pulling to get more blood.
Oh, stars, what have I done?
As the shadow soared over to the next orc and the next, the tugging continued.
With each drawing of blood, my vision dimmed, my body weakened.
After the shadow’s fourth kill, an orc twice the size of Caelo and equally skilled in swordsmanship, I toppled over and, try as I might to push myself up against the blood-sodden snow, I could not get back up.
“Neve!” Vale was beside me, pulling at the surrounding webbing. When had he gotten there? “What’s going on?”
I tried to answer, but no words came, only the dimming of my sight until the world went black.