Chapter 13
The bodies of the guards and the poor old councillor remained on the ground before the city walls. The blood had mingled with the dirt, staining the earth. A stark reminder of who they were dealing with.
It was now completely dark, and they waited anxiously for the enemy army to strike. But the attack never came.
Amelia stayed on the wall, watching the army, waiting. Emin tried to take her inside, but she couldn’t look away.
“Did you know?” she asked.
“Did I know what?” Emin said.
“That everything was a lie? That the fae were here before us? That the emperor has kept this from us?” Her voice rose with each question.
Could Emin have kept this from her? She trusted him more than anyone else alive. Everyone else had betrayed her or died. Could she no longer trust him either?
“That’s not true.” He shook his head. “We would have known.”
She stared into his eyes, searching deep into his soul for the truth.
“Don’t you think your father would have discovered if there’d been an ancient civilisation here before us?” he said.
Her father had omitted information from the archives of the mine. The thought that he would have lied was too painful to consider.
If Emin truly didn’t know… then did the guild master? This conspiracy ran deeper than the guild.
“You need to get some rest,” he said gently. “I doubt they are going to strike until morning. You’ll be safe until then.”
How wrong he’d been.
They’d waited until the dead of night, when most had given up and gone to sleep to catch some rest before the battle. Their archers sneaked through the darkness to shoot guards from the city walls.
Once the element of surprise had been lost, they loosed flaming arrows over the walls.
Amelia awoke to footsteps and the yells of soldiers running with buckets of water to put out the fires.
Water would be one of their most important defences, especially considering the enemy army had a fire mage.
A guard appeared at the door to the room she’d occupied. “The emperor wants you.”
She followed the guard back to the boardroom where a council of war was taking place. They all looked up at her approach.
“Ah, there’s our fae expert,” the emperor said mockingly. “We need to know everything that you know about them. What abilities they have, what weapons they have, how they fight. Anything that could help us win this battle.”
They had doubted her word, and now they were depending on it. They might have received more useful information if they hadn’t handed Ruven over. She kept thinking about him, wondering what Casyl had done to him.
“I know little about their tactics,” she said.
“They have a fire mage. She can manipulate fire if she’s close enough.
” Danae could easily burn down their city given the chance.
It was hard to talk about her as if she were the enemy, but that’s what she was.
She’d torched an entire town of Amelia’s people.
“What about their leader, the one who killed our good friend, the councillor?”
“Casyl. He leads the army, but it’s the king that’s in control. Casyl can inflict pain.” He’d inflicted enough pain on her. “Tharos is the most dangerous. He can control what others see.” She stopped talking and turned to the men in the room. They were looking at her as if she’d lost her mind.
“I know it sounds as though it came straight out of a story, but you’ll see for yourselves.”
“They don’t seem to be doing much at the moment, just firing arrows,” one of them said.
“They are playing with us.”
*
The enemy launched its attack later that day. Hordes of fae ran at the city armed with ladders as they tried to scale the walls. Guards fought them back, trying to dislodge them, pushing them away, but they kept coming.
Amelia watched from the safety of the palace walls with Emin, the emperor, and his advisers. It went on for hours. Siege warfare could last for months, and this was the first actual battle.
The human army spent more time fighting fires started by the burning arrows than repelling the attackers. Danae’s arrows.
With each wave of warriors, the nausea built inside her, layer upon layer. She could not stand there and watch this any longer. She had to do something.
From her vantage point on the stone ramparts, she saw the mage. Her swirling tempest of white-hot flames surrounded her.
Amelia stepped forward, shaking off Emin’s hand.
Danae stood near the wall to control the flames within the city. It was close enough for Amelia to feel the vibrations of her power. She reached out with her mind, followed the tendrils of energy and latched onto them.
She seized Danae’s magic with a scream.
She could see Danae’s shock from there. Amelia’s power smothered Danae’s flames like a blanket. They vanished in a billow of grey smoke, leaving the fire mage stumbling backwards.
Their eyes met, and Amelia could have sworn she saw sadness in Danae’s expression.
They wheeled the cage into view.
“Oh…”
“What is it?” Emin stood behind her.
“Something that shouldn’t exist. Something terrible.”
They all stood gaping as the beast was released from its cage. It stood sniffing the air, blinking as it adjusted to the sunlight after its confinement. Then it charged.
It rushed straight at the gates. The city walls shuddered beneath the impact of the enormous horned creature. It slammed itself repeatedly against them. The gates trembled, weakening with each hit.
“What is that?”
“I don’t know what they call it, but it looks like it’s going to break the gates!” she cried. The enemy gathered behind it; they’d stopped attempting to climb the walls and just watched. The beast was going to break through the gates, and they were just going to walk into the city.
“Give the order to drop the bomb,” the emperor said.
“You have a bomb?” Amelia asked, stunned.
“Chrysonium,” he said. “Its power is endless.”
Where had they been testing them? “Is that safe to use so close to the city?”
“If you hadn’t noticed, we’re about to be overrun with murderous fae!” he yelled. “This is a last resort. If we don’t stop them now, they’ll be through those gates.”
It was the first day of the battle, and they were already using their biggest weapon. Amelia shook her head in disbelief. This couldn’t be real.
They were going to die.
They watched as soldiers loaded large round containers onto small catapults and aimed them towards the beast and the enemy.
“Fire!”
The bomb was launched at the enemy as the soldiers on the wall took cover. There was a blinding flash of blue light, and the world shook as men screamed.
The force of the explosion knocked Amelia onto the stone rampart, filling the air with dust from the ground. Her ears rang as the vibrations echoed beneath her. She scrambled up, the white haze fading from her vision.
Fae littered the ground like debris, and the beast lay on its side.
“It worked! Aim another!” the emperor ordered.
The next bomb was released. Amelia took cover this time.
The rest of the enemy army stayed back, watching.
The men cheered.
“I told you we had a powerful weapon!” The emperor bragged.
The dust settled, and the cheering stopped. They rushed to peer over the wall.
The beast had risen. A gaping hole had appeared in its side. Fallen fae began to get up, some of them missing limbs, others dragging their half-blown torsos along the floor.
They watched in horror.
“What in the gods’ name is happening?” Emin cried. “That is unholy!”
Amelia looked at the rest of the fae army. They also stood unmoving.
“Why aren’t they dead?” someone shouted.
What the hell were they dealing with? Why weren’t they dying? It was impossible that they had all survived both bombs. She had seen them die in the battle before, lying still, unmoving. Dead. They were not immortal.
The smoke had barely begun to clear, exposing the crater that scarred the earth where the devastating blast should have reduced the creature and the fae to ash.
There were screams, and a guttural roar that shook the dust from the city walls. The silhouette of the creature charged towards them. The army of fae continued forward as the beast resumed its attack on the gates.
It hurtled its massive body forwards, fuelled by frenzy, shaking the city like a battering ram.
The city was silent.
They were powerless against their unnatural abilities.
Suddenly, the gates gave way, and the beast charged through the city streets, the enemy following in vast waves. They’d breached the city in less than a day.
Men bravely stood with weapons, waiting for the onslaught. Others shook, unable to move, and were consumed by the deadly wave of fae.
“Save yourselves!” The emperor fled the room with his advisers following.
There was no point in trying to run.
“Amelia? Amelia!” Emin screamed at her. He stood shaking her, jolting her out of her trance. “We need to get out of here.”
“Go,” she said, grabbing him by the shoulders. “Hide.” She pushed him away.
“No, I’m not leaving without you!”
“Emin, you have to!”
He paused and shook his head. He fled.
She was numb. She could not look away from the horrors that were visible from the balcony.
The streets were filling with human bodies.
Blood ran through the cobbled streets like rain, muddying an excavation trench.
The fae slaughtered anyone in sight. There would soon be as many bodies on the streets as there were in the catacombs below.
Civilians ran through the streets, trying to escape, whilst screams and smoke filled the air.
She could see fires scattered, spreading throughout the city.
Danae.
The guild would be gone. Emin was probably dead.
Her lovely city, her life. It was about to be reduced to ashes.
Her legs carried her to the edge of the balcony. It was far enough to break her neck. She could just jump and be free of this; she wouldn’t have to see any more bloodshed or live in fear. It would just take one step.
She couldn’t do it.
A figure ran into the courtyard and looked up at her.
Casyl.
She backed away. He’d seen her. She ran back into the palace and tried to find somewhere to hide. But what was the point?
She waited for him to arrive.
He came alone. He strolled towards her, his silver armour covered in blood, his sword trailing along the floor. For a moment, pain broke through his composure. Then his expression turned cold.
He pointed his sword at her. “Come,” he said.
She followed him out of the palace towards the streets of the city. There was no point in resisting. Seeing the destruction up close was even worse.
Most of the screaming had faded, leaving only the distant cries of the wounded echoing through the buildings.
She averted her gaze from the bodies lining the streets but couldn’t help noticing the torn grey guild robe that trailed across the cobbles.
She followed the fabric to the girl’s face.
She’d passed the initiate most mornings, hurrying through the halls with more scrolls than she could carry, and now she passed her for the last time.
A sob escaped her. Casyl glanced back and caught her arm, urging her onwards. She recoiled from his touch.
She hoped desperately that some of the guild had escaped and would get word to their neighbouring cities and kingdoms.
They mounted a horse and galloped out of the city towards the enemy’s camp where the king was waiting. He hadn’t taken part in the fighting, but she knew the beast had been unleashed at his command.
The king greeted her with a cruel curl of his lip. “How nice to see you again. As you can see, we destroyed the city. We gave them the option to surrender you along with the Lifesource, but they declined and left us no choice.” He shrugged. “You will take us to the mines.”
She would deny him, but then she didn’t see any reason to object now. There was nothing left to live for. They’d destroyed almost all the buildings with the fire. The only ones left untouched were those surrounding the palace.
Perhaps they’d leave after she showed them the mine.
“Why didn’t you destroy the palace?” she asked.
“Why would I destroy my new palace?” the king said, burying any hope she had of them leaving.
There was a whimper. The emperor sat tied to a pole, his mouth gagged. He hadn’t managed to escape the city unseen by the horde.
He’d been badly beaten, his face already beginning to purple and swell. He looked at her with his one good eye, silently pleading.
“You will lead Casyl to the mines,” the king commanded.
Casyl dragged her away from the presence of the king and put her back upon his horse. She was like a rag doll, with no energy to resist.
“Which way?” he asked.
“South-east.”
They travelled on horseback with a small squad of warriors. Amelia sat in front of Casyl, his arms around her as he held the reins.
She could feel how tense he was.
The touch of him made her feel sick.
She couldn’t stop the question from leaving her lips. “How are they all still alive? I watched the bombs explode. I saw bodies flung into the air and then they stood back up. The beast didn’t die. Why aren’t you dead?” she almost spat the last question at him.
He was quiet for a while. She didn’t think he was going to respond at all when he said, “I don’t know.”
The mine had been abandoned. Word of the attack must have reached them.
The ground beneath her quivered as she led Casyl down the tunnel into the cave. The mineral veins in the rock began to pulse, glowing brighter.
“This is the only mine?” he asked.
“As far as I know,” she replied.
She watched him as he surveyed the mine, noting the piles of skeletal remains. He turned around to face her. “Then we have no need for you anymore.”