Chapter 34
Battle at the Borderlands
Damien
In every battle, there’s a turning point, a moment in time when the tide shifts so abruptly that you feel swept forward, a cresting wave crashing down on your enemies.
We may have started this war equally matched with the silver coats, but everything changes when Phantom roars down from the sky and divides their ranks.
We waste no time taking advantage of the turn in our favor.
Our unit quickly eradicates those separated from their brethren and distracted by the stream of fire.
We charge through the flames in our shadow forms and attack, slicing through the enemy while they gawk at the sky.
Phantom’s second pass weakens their forces even more. We push through to the other side of the port. As my team finishes off the enemy, Undaku orders his men to secure the border, and Prandle’s unit scours every building, rounding up any prisoners for the stockade. There aren’t many.
Cassius’s team puts out the fires that the silver coats started.
Most of the port city has been burned, and the Maiden’s Voyage is a wreck of smashed tables and chairs.
But there is nothing here that can’t be rebuilt.
The only thing we’ve truly lost are the warriors who have died, and we won’t know how many until we sift through the bodies.
Tempest arrives with a team of healers and starts methodically working through the fallen men, while others begin the process of burying the remains of our enemies.
Somewhere, I hear a trumpet blare. Thane lights the cressets in front of the Palace of Dawn. Window by window, the candelabras inside are flare to life, and then a raven flies from the aviary to share the news with our allies.
We have taken back Aendor.
But all I care about is Eloise. I search the skies but can’t find Phantom. The last I saw her and the dragon, they were flying over the ocean. Did one of the sunlight arrows hit them? Did they crash into the sea? Is she out there somewhere, even now, struggling to take her next breath?
I race for the shore, my heart pounding and my eyes wild with the need to find her. But I needn’t have worried. She is there, rowing a dingy to shore with my sister Karyl at the bow.
“What the actual fuck?” I mutter.
Eloise is covered in blood as if she’s had a major nosebleed, and Karyl is carrying a rucksack and an enormous bag that clinks when she moves.
“Brother!” she says, dropping the bags on the red sand and running to me with her arms spread wide.
“What are you doing here?” I growl.
“I came to help.” She releases me, and I turn to Eloise.
“Are you hurt?” I ask, alarmed at the blood.
“No. Just overused my magic. Phantom is resting.” She eyes me up and down. “You?”
I look down at myself. There isn’t a single inch of me that’s not stained red. “Fine. I was cut a few times, but the wounds have already healed. We won Aendor. Undaku is securing the border.”
She flies into my arms, and I swing her around.
“Prince Damien, Lord Thane would like to see you in the war room right away,” a boy in a black uniform says.
I set Eloise down but don’t break eye contact. “Tell them I’ll be right there.”
“You should go. I’ll help Karyl find a room,” she says.
“You brought my sister to the war zone,” I say, unable to keep the accusation from my voice.
She raises her brows at me. “Your sister chose to help us fight, and she helped complete the potion we need.”
Karyl reaches into the burlap bag and holds up a vial of black sludge.
“You convinced Catarina to make it for you?” I say, utterly amazed.
“I did.” She flutters her eyelashes at me like she isn’t the absolute badass who just busted through enemy troops.
I take her hand in mine. “Come. Bring the sludge.”
“Where are you taking me?”
“To the war room. Your presence is just as important as mine.” I grab the boy’s arm as I pass. “Find my sister a room.” I point at Karyl.
“Yes, sir,” the boy says and scurries to Karyl’s side.
Hand in hand with my mate, I make my way through the bodies, through the smoke, into the compound and to the war room.
Eloise has her chin lifted, her eyes straight ahead. She’s trying not to see the bodies.
“There are no children among the dead,” I whisper. “Not that I can see anyway.”
The revelation doesn’t comfort her the way I’d hoped.
“I remember Tempest telling me that Aendor sent them only young men, and few at that. I suspect Nevina thought this would be an easy win. She’s keeping her secret weapon—the children—for another battle.
Saving them for the Borderlands and Zephrine to shield their forces from any who oppose them. ”
“But you have the potion.”
She nods. “Thank the goddess. We have time to free them.”
Thane is shouting orders when we reach the war room. “Use the west wing for anyone recovering, and I want those prisoners guarded around the clock. Damien! Thank the goddess. What’s our next move?”
I take my spot at the head of the table, feeling as if I’m standing in my father’s shoes and not liking the fit at all.
No matter that I was raised a prince and fought my share of battles.
No matter that I learned military strategy at my father’s knee.
I am not my father, and leading this offensive is as foreign to me as Eloise’s Earth once was.
Nothing prepares you to lead your people toward possible death.
Nothing prepares you to face a situation where your own death is not only probable but worth it.
I turn to one of the envoys waiting near the door.
“Send word to Seamus through the shadow network. It’s time.
Deploy the mountain dweller forces to defend the northwest. Careful, though.
New Stygarde will be listening. It will be enough to say the weather is turning.
Understand?” The boy bows and leaves the room.
“Thane’s and Percy’s teams will stay here to hold Aendor and prepare to advance on New Stygarde when the time comes.” I look toward Eloise. “Wait for the code ‘the dragon roars.’ Do not trust the shadows without that code.”
“Yes, sir,” Percy calls and races from the room. Thane bows and moves out after him.
“Cassius, deploy your vampires to the Borderlands.”
“Is that wise, Damien? My vampires are the most susceptible to sunlight. You’ll have them sandwiched between Entrydal’s and New Stygarde’s forces.” I have to hand it to him. There is no accusation in Cassius’s tone. His voice is a smooth, unemotional challenge to my logic, not my authority.
“Unfortunately, that vulnerability will occur anywhere. Maximus—” I turn to the Rivertoad general “—you will deploy your men across the Borderlands as well. Together, you’re a sizable force.
Try to use your numbers to your strategic advantage by shielding Cassius’s men from elven magic.
Vampires have no heartbeat. Even the hunters won’t hear them coming. ”
Maximus bows and leaves the room. Cassius’s eyes meet mine, and I send him a message down the shadows that we have the antidote and I will need his help delivering it. He places a hand over his heart and nods.
“All other teams, including mine, will deploy to Zephrine to take back the west villages.” I look to Lord Prandle, and he gives me an affirming nod.
But Lord Undaku scowls. “You’d have shades from the Borderlands fight in the west?”
“Yes, Undaku. The west has suffered the ravages of starvation for far longer than the Borderlands. The troops from the region don’t have the strength to hold it alone. I need you to help secure Zephrine the same way we did Aendor.”
His scowl twists skeptically. “I think you foresee New Stygarde using our children against us and have sent the vampires to the Borderlands because they are from another world, and therefore are not related to anyone on the battlefield. The vampires have no bond with anyone the queen enchants to attack us. They will not hesitate to kill our babies to take back the castle.”
Bile churns in my gut as I face him, knowing that every word is true.
“Eloise has a plan to help the children using her magic. It’s not foolproof, but we are going to try.
However, you are right. If we fail, I wish to spare you that indignity.
” Our eyes meet and hold. The hatred in Undaku is not for me.
It’s for New Stygarde, for the loss they’ve endured.
While the west starved, the Borderlands attempted to sacrifice the few to save the many.
But there was no right answer. The west lost a few children to starvation.
The Borderlands lost more to New Stygarde. “It is sound strategy,” I say softly.
His throat bobs on a hard swallow, and then he bows, removing himself from the room.
“Tempest.”
“Yes, Damien?” She is the last in the room, other than Eloise. “I am giving you charge to direct your healers. Send at least one medical unit to every region.”
“A wise choice.” She raises her fist in the air. “For Stygarde.”
I echo the motion. “For Stygarde.”
When the door swings shut, Eloise and I are the only ones left in the war room. I turn to her and grip her shoulders, knowing that my next command will be the most difficult to execute. But being a true leader requires sacrifice. The same sacrifice I’ve asked Undaku to make for Stygarde.
“Cassius is waiting for you,” I tell her.
“It will take two days for our troops to fully deploy as I’ve ordered.
Weapons and tents will have to go by rabble beast. Food and medical, too.
New Stygarde will be distracted with readying their response.
You have an opening. Use Phantom. Are they strong enough? ”
Her eyes go vacant for a moment, and then she nods. “Yes. They are recovered.”
“Good. Take Cassius and the antidote. Be careful not to trip Nevina’s wards. I will meet you in southern Zephrine as soon as I am able.”
She searches my face, clutching the bag containing the potion vials to her chest. “I won’t let you down.”
“The only way you could ever let me down is if you leave me, Eloise. Promise me you will keep yourself safe and return to me. Use Cassius. He is the finest shade warrior I have ever known.”
She nods enthusiastically. “I will return.”
“Good. Because there is nowhere on Tenebris or Earth or in the bowels of the underworld that I won’t come for you, Eloise.
If you are captured or die, I will let this world burn, drop all my responsibilities to my people and to my kingdom to come for you.
Do you understand? It is all I can do to give you my blessing.
You don’t want the blood that will be shed on your hands if you don’t return to me. ”
Her hand rises to cup my cheek, and I swear I see fire burning in her eyes. “I will return to you, Damien. If there is nothing but magic holding my bones together, I will return.”
Our lips join in a deep, bruising kiss that is far too short, and then she is gone and I am left staring at the map, at the figures that represent my world and its people, as the room grows painfully, ominously quiet. I give myself time to draw one deep breath, and then I move.