20. Chapter Six
Chapter Six
T he metal tang of ships as they ground against our shores hurt my ears until they came to a screeching hold.
Baron left me with a kiss before he joined our warriors on the ground.
I took aim from one of the taller trees.
I’d always been best with a bow. Drawing it up, I focused on where the blackened ships sat, sinking into the sands.
I waited for their spiked point at the tip of the ship to lower, revealing its insides where Ember fae soldiers would march down from onto the water’s edge.
The creak of the metal pulled my attention to the ship in the middle of the five sitting on our island.
As the metal tip lowered, I tightened my grip on my arrow, preparing myself for what was to come.
As the door thudded on the beach, a single set of footsteps echoed against the ore.
A woman came walking out, her hair as black as the soot falling from the ships she sailed from.
Her skin was paler than I expected. Her black boots were laced above her knee.
I could barely tell the difference between her boots and pants as they matched perfectly.
Her top was lower cut with a fitted jacket over top with accents of bloodred along the sides of her torso and sleeves.
She walked out, calm and alone. Confident in every move she made. Calculated. Unafraid and deadly.
As the doors opened on the other ships, Fire Fae soldiers came out in a single file line. They joined her, all of them stopping a few feet behind her, waiting for her orders to strike.
I watched as her murky amber eyes scanned the wood line. Her eyes looked as if they matched the color of all the blood she’d spilled against innocent soil. She huffed, almost as if she felt bored.
“I believe I’m looking for Baron.” She spoke loud enough for any fae to hear.
“Or is it Shay I should ask for? Where I’m from, women have, oh, what’s the word…
” She hummed to herself as if this were some sort of game.
“Sway, with authority.” A few tense moments passed, and she tapped her forefinger against the hilt of her sword like she was growing impatient about nothing exciting happening yet.
Baron stepped out from the tree line, his stance tense as the woman’s posture shifted toward him.
“Ah, you must be the great Baron, the Dragon Slayer of Espien. I’ve heard good things. ”
“Cut the shit. Who are you, and what do you want?”
“Oh, you’re brave, and cute.” Her lip curled to the side as Baron bared his teeth.
He took a step in her direction. The soldiers all turned in complete unison as their arms caught ablaze with bright-red fire, and my heart fell from my chest. I hoped Baron would step down.
He stopped in his tracks as the woman continued.
“I see being on an insignificant piece of land, word must not travel here very well, so allow me to introduce myself…I’m Valla Corvus, Princess of Ember, Commander of Armies, but you can call me Val.
” She walked nonchalantly. Every step she took closer to Baron made my heart skip and my stomach recoil.
“Pleased to make your acquaintance.” She did a small dip of her head before continuing.
“I’m feeling kind today, so it is simple, really.
You can either leave willingly and let Ember claim this land, or you can decline and burn.
” She looked him up and down, lifted a single brow as smugness leaked from her pores.
“I’ll even give you a few moments to decide. ”
Baron looked down at her, Valla’s height right at the center of his chest, but this woman wielded power as if just one glance could set the universe on fire at her command.
Baron’s chest heaved. I watched him fight the urge to strike her down where she stood, but he knew the soldiers would attack relentlessly.
He tore away from her gaze and turned back to the woods to find me.
I threw my bow to my backside and slid down the tall tree.
Baron was tense, his words fast, “Shay… what do you want us to do?”
“We have a dragon’s heart, remember? I say we fight.
” He shook his head, knowing just how outnumbered we were.
Just the rows of soldiers from five ships outnumbered us.
We’d be fighting two to one with no elemental bending abilities.
It sounded like a death wish. But at least we’d be fighting for our homelands instead of running.
Osparia was going to war, and we would have all faced this fight eventually.
Baron’s eyes met mine. “Our people know the stakes and want to fight because this is their home. We have to try.” Baron huffed a breath, and I glanced back at the rows of Ember soldiers.
Val had unsheathed her sword, crossed her legs, and lightly leaned against it as she glanced at her nails, uninterested.
Her confidence just made anger scorch through my veins.
How she felt she could just show up and take whatever land she walked on.
Her firm conviction of victory, I guessed, taking Heavensreach, made her cocky, or maybe she had always been this cunning.
Baron signaled the archers to aim for their marks, and I saw a small curve of Val’s lips in the distance, almost like she craved the violence of war, the thirst for blood, the destruction from the very flames she wielded.
The moment Baron moved, the sounds of arrows whistled through the air.
Fire erupted into a tall wall in front of the soldiers from a flip of their wrists.
Some arrows made it through before the flames licked up from the sands, the fatal hits of the arrows piercing the few Fire Fae soldiers straight through their hearts, giving them no time to recover and heal before their chests stopped heaving and death found them.
Their blood slowly seeped into the sand, staining it, marking this place for war.
Val stepped through the flames right before the wall fell behind her with her sword drawn and her eyes wild, thirsty for devastation, like a leech needing blood to live.
She rushed forward with her soldiers as our warriors broke through the tree line, swords drawn, daggers flying.
The sounds of metal and tearing flesh filled the air shortly before the crackling, snapping sounds of the roaring blaze of flames danced across the land.
Ember fae had no restraint as they whirled fire from their fingertips.
Burning flesh and ash assaulted my nose in the wind as I ran into battle.
I pulled my bow back with three arrows, shooting three enemy soldiers straight through their chests with deadly precision before throwing my bow and grabbing for my daggers across my chest. Sweat beaded my brow, and my clothes stuck to my curves as sweat soaked through them.
One by one, I watched people I had grown up with over the years fall before the blades and flames.
Each of them took Ember soldiers with them to death, but they still outnumbered us, no matter the loss they took.
I threw my daggers across the battlefield one by one.
They hit their marks, sinking into a chest or a neck.
I was sure to not give the enemy enough time to restore themselves.
I could hear Baron calling for me through the depths of the roaring flames, but I had set my sights on one person.
Val.
I watched her walk through the flames as if she were forged from hell itself.
Her eyes glowed against the bright oranges and reds flowing across the island.
“You should have left when you had the chance,” she said calmly, “but I’m glad you didn’t.
I like the fun.” She teased about death as if it would never claim her.
I moved at fae speed, not giving her the chance to continue her spew.
But with a slight curve of her body, she dodged both daggers, leaving me with only my sword left.
Baron’s calls came from a distance. I could feel him tugging on our bond, but my focus never left Val’s face.
I blocked my mind, my bond, to Baron’s call to remain focused.
“I’ll do you a favor. I’ll make it even, no bending.
” Her smile devious, she drew up her sword, getting into a fighter’s stance.
Her movements were fast, lethal. Every move was obsessively precise.
I could tell Val had spent her life perfecting her combat and bending skills.
It was why she was a princess leading her empire’s army.
I wasted no time thrusting my sword forward as the metal clanked and hissed against each other.
With every strike, Val blocked and weaved past everything I threw at her until she pushed her sword forward, coming straight for me.
I jumped to the side, swinging my sword down with all of my body weight onto hers, knocking it from her hands.
I swung my sword up so fast, she didn’t have the chance to miss it as it grazed her face.
Blood trailed down her cheek. She stumbled back.
I rushed her, but fury filled her eyes as she lifted them back to mine.
“You think you stand a chance against Ember?” She wiped at her bloodied face.
“These were just the leading ships of our fleet, you fool!” A manic laugh escaped her as her hands glowed a bright blue.
Lightning popped and cracked between her fingertips, preparing to shoot forward straight into me.
Her bending was so concentrated, she’d learned to wield beyond her fire—lightning.
My eyes went wide. Baron cried out to me, but he was too far away, battling Ember soldiers in the distance, bobbing and weaving their flames.
I could sense my end coming until a black-winged figure caught my eye, soaring down through the flames.
She whipped the Princess of Ember back away from me with her long tail.
I jumped, climbing onto her back, heaving breaths as adrenaline pulsed through my veins.
I coughed as the smokey air became crisp in the open sky. Rubbing my hand down Emeris’s neck, I thanked her for saving me. “I owe you for that one,” I rasped. Her low growling purr was her only response as we circled back.
Val’s claim came into view. Ember lined the horizon with dozens more of black warships.
“These were just the leading ships of our fleet, you fool!” Her voice echoed in my mind.
We have to get out of here . But my thought wasn’t faster than Val’s lighting as she launched it at me.
The slightest hint of her defeat in our battle earlier infuriated her.
Emeris banked hard to the right. The lightning gashed through her side, causing her to roar, bellowing out in pain.
She free-fell a moment before regaining herself, her flight wobbly as her wound gushed.
Her body trembled as if the lightning were still sizzling through her limbs.
More dragons fell to their end as Val unleashed her rage.
I veered Emeris toward the far end of the island, landing where Ember had yet to reach. I leaped down hastily, moving to check her injuries. Her low bellow of pain made me wince as I assessed the damage.
“Will you be alright?” The fear of losing her laced in my tone.
She just looked at me and gave me a nod.
“Can you fly? Will the others help us escape?” Her only response was a loud roaring purr as she called out to the other dragons.
Within a few moments, I watched as more of them appeared as if they were emerging from the clouds from beyond the waters. From Magni.
“Wait for my signal. I’ve got to get us out of here.
It’s over.” I placed my forehead against hers, bidding her farewell for now as I rushed back into the tree line.
The heat of the flames found me quickly.
They snapped and whooshed as trees fell, gasping as the roar of the flames consumed them, sucking away their life.
My eyes burned not only from the smoke, but the turmoil building behind them.
The realization that I had failed my people.
Not only did I lose lives, but we all lost our home.
My breath quickened as I rushed through the black smoke. The screams and cries of death resonated around me. Bile rose in my throat at the smell of burning flesh and iron soaked into the surrounding fumes, but I couldn’t tell if it was from the blood or the heated metal of the swords.
I heard my name rasped from a body lying on the ground in the distance. The sound made me stop in my tracks. My heart stuttered over itself. No, no, no…My mind already understood as my heart strained to comprehend. To believe.
Ravi lay before me. A sword was pierced through his gut and burns covered over half of his body.
Tears slipped from my eyes. I could no longer hold them back as I fell to my knees next to him.
“You’re going to be okay. You’re going to be okay.
” Disbelief was always the first stage of grief before understanding.
All he did was shake his head, gasping for the very breath his lungs were trying to cling to.
He unsheathed a dagger from his thigh with a trembling, charred hand.
He grabbed me and placed the hilt into my palm, lacing my fingers with his around it.
I knew what he was asking me to do. How could I kill one of my own even if I was putting him out of his misery?
“I can’t—I…” My words stumbled. I couldn’t breathe through the smoke and fumes.
Panic consumed me, but Ravi grabbed my arm.
“Please, it’s over for me, Shay.” His voice was low and graveled as he heaved for life in between his words. Blood trailed from his mouth. My heart splintered in my chest at his request, and my lungs burned from the broken pieces and the smoke that filled them.
“Promise me…” His voice wheezed. “Promise me…,” he repeated, tightening my hold on the dagger.
“I promise,” I screamed, my throat raw, as I plunged the dagger into my fellow man’s chest. His fingers went loose against my hand as his body relaxed. His eyes glazed over, empty of life.
My mind grew groggy—distant. The smoke consumed me as I tried to stand. I thought I walked, but speckles of black lined my vision, and then I felt the ash-covered ground under my hands. My body moved, crawled, as my mind went to a faraway place.
A name echoed through the flames from a familiar voice, my name, but I couldn’t place where it was coming from. My vision faded as a heavy hand hauled me back up to my feet in my dazed state.
“Shay! We have to go! More are coming.” Baron coughed over the roar of the heat.
The flames pulled the life from everything near them.
My body begged for water, for air, feeling almost numb to the heat now.
I stumbled, falling forward into the ashes again.
I could hear Baron curse under his breath, hauling me into his arms.
“Stay with me, Shay,” was all I heard before my mind fell into nothingness.