32. Chapter 32
Chapter thirty-two
Keera
Sand and shards of molten glass flew through the air as lightning struck the ground. One of the jagged pieces caught me across the temple but I barely felt it.
Instead, I rapidly blinked blood from my eyes as I tried to regain my bearings after the earthshattering blast. The man who had been dragging Aderyn from her horse had fallen, and she was on the ground next to him, seemingly unharmed.
She recovered first, scrabbling to her feet and raising her twin blades.
Before she could dispatch her assailant, another jumped at her from the side. Her blades came up, catching his weapon between their two lethal curves, and she was forced to stumble back a few steps.
Daiti lunged forward in response to a squeeze of my legs, charging through the open space between us created by my blast of magic. I advanced toward Aderyn, dispatching any who tried to harry me with brutal downward cuts of my saber and my long dagger on either side.
Aderyn’s adversaries drove her back deeper behind enemy lines as she held them off, but still I pursued them.
I reached them just as Aderyn spun one of her blades in a lethal twist, cutting off one man’s hand cleanly at the wrist. He fell to his knees with a mangled scream, cut off in a gurgling crunch as Daiti crushed his skull with lashing hooves.
My blade caught the other man in the neck, who fell like a stalk of wheat before a scythe.
Aderyn looked up, shaking blood from her eyes, but instead of relief at my presence, horror twisted her face.
“No!”
I twisted to see where she looked and found the cavalry from Viltov charging in from the side. Their lines barreled into the fray between us and the mass of clan riders. We were cut off behind enemy lines.
“Sands,” I swore, reaching down to try and help Aderyn up on my horse behind me. If any stallion could charge through a thicket of enemy spears and return us to our allies, it was Daiti.
Before I could grip Aderyn’s slippery fingers, the whistling of an arrow split the air. I ducked just in time, and Aderyn was forced to turn and parry another foot soldier’s incoming attack.
She put her back to Daiti’s flank as she felled him with exquisite skill, but I still ground my teeth in frustration. Even as I defended our other side, slashing in twin arcs with both my saber and my long dagger, a horrifying thought penetrated the mayhem of battle in my mind.
This had been intentional.
I had tried to draw attention, and draw it I had. Calix’s men had wanted to separate me from the riders and cut off the snake’s head.
But this snake had fangs.
Magic bubbled up, hot and potent as a lava wyrm in my chest. If I could just buy us a moment’s respite, we could fight our way back to the other lords. A cry escaped me as I thrust my sword up to the sky.
Lightning shot from the sky, blinding even against the searing light of the sun. All the soldiers around us were blasted back a few steps. The cleared circle around us was charred black and smoldering by the time my vision refocused.
Still, the soldiers tightened in again like a noose. This time, the cavalry pushed in as well. Aderyn was a force of nature, her sickle blades forming impenetrable discs of swirling steel as she fought with bared teeth.
But we could not last forever.
The tether low in my belly pulled so hard it was nearly painful. I gasped in a breath, drowned out by the familiar roar that cut through the turmoil.
Erix had arrived.
As I cut down a rider of Viltov—seething at the way he yanked on the reins binding his horse—he fell out of the way to reveal a dark figure cutting through the gleaming ranks of Viltov’s soldiers.
Erix dived into the fray alone, and the skirmishing of the other set of clans spread out behind him. I might have been frustrated that he too would be separated from his forces if I wasn’t so relieved to see him.
We were more powerful together, and perhaps even an army of this size would not be able to stop us once we united.
My attention was drawn away from his approach though as Aderyn shouted beside me.
Despite her speed and skill, she could not dodge an arrow she didn’t see coming.
One whizzed by her, slicing into her bicep and causing her to yelp.
Even as she slashed out and cut down her next opponent, I knew it would slow her down after the initial rush of adrenaline.
Erix had to get here before that happened.
I looked up just in time to see a man jump off his horse and try to land behind Erix on Alza. For some reason, this soldier of Viltov wasn’t armored like the rest, and it made him nimbler. He managed to wrap his arms around Erix from behind, but Alza reacted instantly.
Her front hooves lashed out, taking down two more soldiers as she tried to buck the new weight from her back. Erix stayed firmly seated atop her, as if he had been born there, but the soldier from Viltov slid backward.
His fists in Erix’s clothing tightened, threatening to drag them both down. Then Erix’s sash ripped, and the soldier plummeted to the ground. Erix ignored him, not even turning back to dispatch him. Instead, he drove forward with single minded focus.
“Aderyn!” I shouted for her attention. “Fight toward the oasis… Erix is coming!”
She had no breath to spare for words, but she nodded sharply.
With her back still pressed to Daiti’s flank, we began sidling toward Erix, ready to meet him in the middle. The soldiers between us melted away at the strength of our fury until Alza and Daiti were once again side by side, black coat against gold.
The circle around us widened, as if the soldiers were hesitant to approach now that a second mounted warrior stood beside us. I panted heavily in the moment of respite, meeting Erix’s molten eyes.
We had met on the field of battle, and now victory was within our grasp.
Even above the din of an already raging battle, a growing surge of pounding hooves could be heard. I twisted on Daiti’s back and saw a wave—just as powerful as I had seen at the ocean—barreling toward us. A second charge, led by four lords at the front.
They had regrouped for another advance, and the weakened lines of Viltov crumpled beneath their onslaught. They crashed around us, enveloping the three of us in the safety of allies. Aderyn slumped against Daiti, exhausted but safe as our opponents were pushed back.
“Retreat!”
The cry went up from the direction of Viltov’s decimated camp, spreading as more and more commanders echoed the order.
The forces began to melt around us, all nearly tripping over each other in their efforts to get away from the deadly horsemen of the clans.
“Make the oasis secure!” I ordered, pointing my saber toward the water. Then I froze. There, on the far side of the oasis, was a tight knot of Viltov’s cavalry. They all seemed to be surrounding a single rider on a dull chestnut horse I recognized from rides around the city a lifetime ago.
Stump was not a warhorse, but Calix himself commanded the battle from his back, nonetheless. He was here. And we had one opportunity to end him before he disappeared back behind the walls of his city.
Oddly, though, he did not seem to be retreating yet. He and his guard hesitated as if waiting for something.
“Erix! We have to give chase.”
I looked at him as I gestured wildly in the direction of Calix. But his eyes were wide and unseeing, with the hand that was not holding his sword in a white knuckled grip pressed to his abdomen.