Chapter Forty-Five – Mira
Chapter Forty-Five
Mira
A marching army was not quiet.
It was the sound of thousands of heavy footsteps. The thud of enormous war horses and beasts.
I was immensely grateful to be riding Conall, who traversed the steep mountain pass with no discernible effort.
Beneath my gloves, my hands were numb and chilled, and I was starting to lose feeling in my legs.
Beside me, the icy wind had all but undone Scarlett’s braid, whipping her hair into a tangled mess of red.
I had the sense we were all relieved when Taiga came into view, though that relief was short-lived.
It was one thing to imagine or plan for a battle. It was another to see thousands of Ravalian Warriors and soldiers spread out in front of me in uniform, precise killing lines. Their ranks inhabited the entirety of the rocky plain, extending all the way to the grey fortress of the Kalurian palace.
And beyond them . . .
‘Whose ships are those?’ Cassius said sharply, his eyes fixed on the distant harbour.
I shielded my face against the sun, which had peeked out from between the grey clouds. Even squinting down over the bowl-shaped valley, I could barely make out the smaller naval force approaching the harbour – but the colours . . . I blinked as the red and gold sails caught the light.
Ravalian ships. Either reinforcements for Roran’s already impressive fleet, or–
‘Did Zandri mention sending a force?’ I asked, twisting to glance at Scarlett, who looked as shocked as I felt.
‘No,’ she said after a pause. ‘But it’s possible. Zandri has ways of controlling Order members – maybe she sent loyal Warriors to stand against Roran. Pitting the Ravalian fleet against itself sounds like a strategy she would employ.’
Either way, we couldn’t wait to see what reception those ships received. We marched on until we reached the foothills leading down from the mountain pass, where we had decided to make our stand.
‘We have the high ground,’ Aric reassured me.
I nodded, not trusting myself to speak. Not as I took in Roran’s black-garbed Warriors and the thousands of red and gold soldiers in the front.
Looming over them on a raised platform was their ruler, armoured ostentatiously in gold imperial armour, his distinctive red hair blowing faintly in the wind.
He hadn’t bothered with a helmet – a deliberate choice. His way of daring me to face him.
‘His arrogance is astounding.’ Scarlett sounded disgusted. ‘Doesn’t he even care that he’s made himself a target?’
‘He doesn’t think we can kill him.’ Which was deeply concerning. If his Artisans had Seen us lose . . .
I frowned as I noticed something else. A ripple of silver surrounding Roran – people wearing silver armour, perhaps? It made me uneasy in a way I couldn’t put my finger on.
Irritated with myself, I returned my focus to Roran’s army. I could barely see the cavalry sitting astride hulking Zigilian stallions, but I knew they would be there. Roran’s frontlines were already in formation: a closed wall of armed men crouching behind their shields.
Aric had warned me of their effectiveness. Many armies had been broken apart by formations like this one. But not mine .
Determined brown eyes fixed on me – waiting for my signal.
‘Do it,’ I told Aric, and he rode forward to two shifters at the very front. Janwar and Ursa.
My whole body tensed. Even though this was necessary, it felt wrong to send them to almost certain death.
‘They volunteered,’ Cassius said in a low voice.
‘They know what they’re risking, and in beast form – it’s possible they will survive.
’ H e glanced at me, his midnight-blue eyes communicating his thoughts perfectly.
This is one of those difficult decisions we discussed.
The kind of hard choices that rulers have to make .
I nodded. We had already covered this – and I had agreed with Cassius’s reasoning. Far better to risk two lives than thousands. Even though the rocky plain looked safe, there could be any number of concealed traps.
The shifters charged across the battlefield, moving with impressive speed.
I watched with bated breath as they drew enemy fire, the arrows bouncing off their armour just as we’d hoped – but all it would take was one arrow slicing through their unprotected throats or into their golden eyes to kill them.
‘Very good,’ Aric said with a grim smile as he rejoined me. ‘Roran has just exposed the position of his archers.’
I allowed myself a small smile too, following the torrent of arrows to the thick forest bordering the steep sides of the valley. Once the archers had thinned our ranks, the frontlines would open to let Roran’s deadly calvary through – and then close once more, sealing his army from our reach.
Except his archers didn’t have long to live.
I closed my eyes, allowing my awareness to drift around me. I couldn’t see the archers, but I felt them, just like I felt the animals in the forest and the trees and plants around them.
My attention focused on the vines and creepers twining around the distant trees. At my command, they began to unwind and snake across the ground. I gritted my teeth and willed the vines to snake upwards, winding around the archers until they encircled their throats.
And then I instructed them to squeeze.
It felt like a cowardly way of killing, but each of these men had the potential to kill scores of my own. They had to be eliminated.
An agonised roar snapped my concentration before I could take them all out.
Horror flooded through me even before I opened my eyes to see the larger shifter – Janwar – topple.
One look at the arrow embedded in his pupil told me he had died instantly – and that the roar had come from Ursa, who had paused beside his body.
A faint whistle announced the next wave of arrows from the ramparts of the Kalurian palace.
With another agonised roar, Ursa whirled around and galloped towards us, outracing the death flying towards her.
When she reached our army, she transformed into human form and raced towards me.
Her hazel eyes were clouded with tears but her voice was steady as she reported, ‘No traps – camouflaged or otherwise. It’s safe for us to advance. ’
‘Thank you,’ I told her. ‘Janwar’s sacrifice will be remembered.’
Ursa bowed her head and retreated back to the frontlines. How many more would we lose before this war was through?
‘I don’t like this,’ Cassius said, peering at the rocky plain. ‘Roran should have set up some traps. If he hasn’t, it means he doesn’t feel the need to. Which means–’
‘He has something else planned.’
‘Exactly.’ Cassius glanced back at me, and the serious expression on his face chilled my blood. ‘You can’t cross this terrain, Mira. It’s exactly what he wants you to do.’
I glanced towards the raised platform Roran had erected. This time, the silver ring around him became clearer.
Priestesses. Velanthe’s senior priestesses.
Their silver gowns billowed in the wind, creating the illusion of movement. And their placement around Roran made their intentions perfectly clear.
‘ That’s his plan,’ I said at last. ‘He thinks he doesn’t need traps – because he has them.’
‘A group of shifter priestesses? Roran’s lost his mind if he thinks they’ll do anything against us. We have an entire army of shifters.’ Scarlett impatiently tossed her red hair over her shoulder. ‘Give the order, Mira. Let’s get this over with.’
I tightened my grip on Conall and glanced sideways at Aric. He nodded in assent. ‘We’re as prepared as we can be.’
My gaze lingered on Aric’s resolute one before shifting to Cassius.
There was a hint of emotion in his dark blue eyes – emotion that he would never have allowed me to see before this.
Not jealousy or disappointment, but something deeper that reminded me of how afraid I had been that I might lose Aric again.
I swallowed down unwise words. This wasn’t the time for sentimentality.
It also wasn’t the time for drawn-out speeches. That wasn’t the way of the shifters – and it certainly wasn’t the way of the clans.
So instead, I looked over the army around me – the male shifters in beast form, ready to charge through Roran’s lines; the females preparing to transform into birds of prey and attack from the air; the clan warriors ready with swords and axes, most sitting astride hardy war horses.
‘You all know what Roran has cost us,’ I shouted. ‘Now, we have the chance to avenge our fallen and to punish him for his brutality and arrogance. Together, we are a force to be reckoned with! Together, we can make him rue the day he ever set foot in Kalure!’
Shouts and roars erupted around me. And then the shifters were moving.
The force of their strides shook the ground as they raced down the foothills towards the no-man’s-land between our armies. Conall loped after them at a slight distance, Scarlett and Ferox staying close to my side – along with Aric and Cassius on their galloping stallions.
It was Cassius who saw it first. ‘Look at the priestesses!’
My heart sank as I followed his gaze to the distant platform, where the priestesses had joined hands. Flickers of strange russet light crackled around them, and as the sky darkened, a sense of wrongness swept over me.
‘You have to give the order to retreat.’ Scarlett said, twisting to look at me. ‘You have to give it now .’
Except it was already too late. I looked on with bated breath as the shifters hurtled across no man’s land – an impressive show of force. But seeing them all in one place, with Roran’s forces making no attempt to advance–
A deep rumbling sounded in front of us.
‘What was–’
‘GET BACK!’ Scarlett shouted, trying to turn Ferox as the earth split open with a deafening crack and the screams of falling shifters. Cracks spiderwebbed towards us even as we fought to put distance between us and the fissure in the earth–
And the flames that erupted from it in a wall of searing heat.