Chapter 53
CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
Tucker
Sparks flew as my sword clashed with my combatant’s. Steel screeched as her blade slid down mine toward the hilt.
I gritted my teeth and tried to ignore the chaos surrounding me as rain pelted the earth and tornadoes tore apart the land. Through it all, the screams of the dying and maimed penetrated the cacophony of elements.
Gargoyles swooped overhead before descending out of the sky like eagles after mice. They lifted their captured soldiers high before releasing them on their brethren below.
I was still wary of those creatures, but they were definitely a big help. Whether that would remain the same when this ended, I didn’t know, but we could only battle one enemy at a time.
More cannons boomed, but this time they’d aimed all the weapons at the sky. Some of the wind-battered projectiles were sucked out of the air by tornadoes and spat out again. The others, trapped in the maelstrom, veered off course, but one of them crashed into a gargoyle’s back.
The impact propelled the creature forward. Its wings flew out, but they couldn’t stop the cannonball’s momentum as it knocked the gargoyle from the sky.
The other creatures let out a cry so full of distress that I was certain the blast killed the gargoyle. That awful sound tugged at my heart, and the need to get to the creature and save it overwhelmed me… but could I get to it?
Spinning my sword, I blocked the guard’s next blow, lifted my foot, and drove it straight into the mail covering her stomach. The kick did little more than knock the woman back a few steps, but it bought me enough time to readjust my sword and swing it outward to slice her throat.
Though she wore a helmet, it didn’t protect her. I knew exactly where the vulnerable spot was on these assholes. As a member of Leo’s army during the Ghoul War, I’d once worn a suit of armor very similar to this one.
The woman released her sword to claw at her neck as blood spurted, but she couldn’t do anything to stop its flow. Just as there was nothing she could do to block my next blow, which severed her head from her shoulders.
More guards stood behind her, but they were all occupied with keeping the rush of amsirah still pouring from the woods at bay. It seemed as if every able-bodied amsirah in the realm had arrived for this battle, and they weren’t about to lose, even if the guards had better weapons.
The duke’s fighters had better weapons and armor, but we now outnumbered them, and rage and desperation fueled the amsirah. They would take these soldiers down and tear them apart with their bare hands if necessary.
Lowering my sword, I paused to catch my breath as I wiped the rain from my brow; it was useless. More water poured over me as the buffeting wind tore at my hair and clothes. The water running down my nape slipped down my back in an icy trail.
My pounding adrenaline kept much of the cold at bay, but now that I wasn’t fighting, the chill was seeping into my bones, creeping through my hands, and creating shivers along my skin.
The distant lights from the palace were the only source of illumination on the battlefield. The torches had all gone out, but that glow was enough to reveal the war taking place.
I had to keep moving, or I’d freeze here. And since there was no one coming at me, I had to find out about the gargoyle.
Turning, I sprinted toward where the creature had fallen. I found the beast, sprawled face down near the edge of the woods as hail pelted the earth. Frozen balls, the size of a coin, hammered my flesh.
The howling wind whipped the hail through the air. One of the balls hit my temple, knocking me to the side. I didn’t know who’d unleashed this new phase of hell, but I hoped their dick or vagina rotted off, and I didn’t care which side they were on.
Trying to avoid more of the unrelenting hail, I fell to my knees beside the gargoyle. The wet ground squished beneath me, and more water rushed into my pants through my knees, but I was already too wet to care.
The cannonball that had taken him—or at least I thought it was a him—from the sky was still on his back, but it hadn’t penetrated the creature.
The ball had knocked him from the sky and pinned him to the ground; he appeared to be unconscious… or dead. It was difficult to tell as the gargoyle wasn’t bleeding.
For all I knew, they didn’t have blood, and when they died, they turned back into stone. If he were a statue again, his splayed position would certainly make for an interesting one.
Grasping the cannonball, I rolled it off the creature’s back as a woman fell to her knees beside me. “Is it dead?” she yelled, her words barely carrying over the chaos.
“I don’t know!”
She studied the gargoyle for a second before grasping one of its arms. “We should turn it over!”
“What about its wings?”
When it fell, its wings remained wide. We might damage the delicate-looking things if we tried turning him over with his wings in such a position.
It was strange to see such a powerful, solid creature with wings as delicate as a butterfly’s, but holes, most likely from arrows, riddled the thin, membrane structures. Those wings were the gargoyle’s one weakness… minus the fact that their heart could be stolen.
“Can we fold them against its back?” she yelled.
I ran my hands across the gargoyle’s throat to detect a pulse. If it were dead, we were wasting our time.
“Does it have a heartbeat?” she asked.