Chapter 124
Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Four
Rohak
Vespera was obliterated.
The grey stone wall that once stood tall, protecting the city for centuries previous, lay in a heap of rubble.
The streets that once teemed with vibrant and diverse life were silent, their stones marred by ash and blood. Shops and taverns that once bustled with raucous activity were barren and dark, others reduced to unrecognizable piles of wood and rock.
This was not the Vespera I knew and loved—this was a graveyard.
Faylinn and I trodded quietly through the outermost parts of the city, though I could feel her despair just as keenly as my own.
Even this far removed from the inner city, the scent of death and decay hung heavy in the air. The caws of carrion and the snuffing of coyotes and other predators carried on the wind as the smaller beasts scurried to hide as our horses clacked slowly over the broken streets.
My heart plummeted, rage and despair coiling viciously in my gut.
Where were Sol and the others?
Did anyone survive?
Protocol required that there should have been, at the very least, a skeleton crew of two Mages and their Vessels hidden somewhere near the entrance to Vespera, ready to report back to whoever held command or stop intruders if necessary.
The pervasive silence punctuated only by the natural sounds of scavengers made it obvious that those procedures failed.
The hooves of our horses clopped along, ringing through the abandoned space and bouncing off the empty buildings. I stayed alert, ready for attackers that I was certain lay waiting in the shadows and silence.
None ever came.
“Whoa,” I said, pulling back sharply on Balios’ reins, much to his disgruntlement. My horse was just as uneasy as I was, his hoof pawing at the ground as he snorted and tossed his great black head.
“What happened here?” Faylinn asked in a hushed whisper, as if afraid to disturb the ghosts that lingered in the dust that still drifted lazily through the air, sunlight bouncing off the small motes.
The connection point of the main thoroughfare and the courtyard beyond was completely blocked—ravaged buildings collapsed inward, their stones falling atop one another to create a nearly impassable barrier.
The scent of death was heavier here, a few wayward crows perched on juts of stone, their beady black eyes moving erratically as they assessed Faylinn and I as if we were a threat to the meal they’d discovered beneath the ruins.
“CAW!” one barked loudly, spreading its rather large black wings before taking flight with a loud flap. Faylinn stuttered in surprise, her honey mare chuffing at the obnoxious bird.
My eyes scanned the pile of stone, assessing the situation and trying to piece together what happened.
There were scattered remains—full corpses still wearing their armor, though their bones showed through, flesh picked clean—at the base of the blockage, while the occasional limb or torso stuck out between pieces of the felled buildings.
I even spotted a hoof or two from where the enemies’ mounts were crushed by quickly falling debris.
“I’d hazard a guess that this is the way Samyr came through, but our Mages collapsed the buildings, hoping to slow their advance,” I said, pointing to the blockage.
Faylinn was silently chewing her lip before she nodded once.
“How do we get around?”
“You don’t. This is the only way in and out of the central courtyard. They must have climbed the rocks,” I said, already swinging my leg off of Balios.
“Wait!” Faylinn called, stilling my movements. I turned my head back toward her, cocking my brow in question. Her hand was outstretched, worry and uncertainty shining in her hazel orbs.
“Yes?”
“This . . . isn’t the only way into the courtyard.”
“How did you know of this?” I bent to examine a break in the northern edge of the wall.
If Faylinn hadn’t shown me, I would never have known its existence.
It was a weak point that could have easily been exploited by our enemies.
Covered by loose brush and plant growth, the gap was just large enough for a man to slip through sideways.
I scratched my beard in thought as I felt down the Bond, waiting for her reply. Faylinn was hesitant and a bit embarrassed, if I caught that emotion correctly.
“Torin created it,” she mumbled, my eyebrows rising significantly at her admission.
She sighed, shaking her head so her curls bounced.
“We had a . . . discussion a few weeks before the attack on Vespera. It’s when I discovered the Bondsmith was my mother and that he had rescued her before she joined their ranks.
” Her hands twined together as she spoke, betraying the feelings she tried to muffle in the Bond.
“We scoped out a place that could easily be hidden by brush and explained away by erosion. It’s how they entered Vespera without being seen in the lower quadrants. ”
I sat back on my heels, brushing my hands against my pants with a bemused chuckle.
“Clever,” I admitted, pushing to a stand with a groan. My knees cracked with the movement, and I stretched to keep the stiffness out of my muscles.
“You’re not . . . mad?” Faylinn asked tentatively, hope ringing through her voice.
“Oh no, I’m livid,” I admitted calmly, causing her eyes to widen to the size of dinner plates. “But there is nothing I can do about it now except to patch it once Vespera is . . . righted.”
Faylinn hummed with a sharp nod as I crunched over twigs and dried leaves to press a kiss to her forehead.
“After you,” I mumbled against her skin, gesturing to the hole in the wall. Faylinn squeezed me tightly for a moment before extracting herself from my embrace and slinking through the wall with practiced ease.
Before following her through, I checked behind me to make sure the horses were as we had left them. Balios and Faylinn’s mare were loosely tied to a tree near the edge of the river, happily munching on grass in the shade.
Balios turned and snorted at me, as if to say they weren’t going anywhere.
I smiled at my uncannily intelligent horse before scraping through the small opening into what I could only describe as hell.