Chapter Forty-Seven – Mira
Chapter Forty-Seven
Mira
Pain.
Blistering, terrible pain that made it impossible to think. Impossible to do anything except scream.
I pushed against the barrier of fire with everything I had. Desperate to make it to the other side–
‘Don’t bother. It won’t let you through.
’ The flames in front of me reformed into a man with hair the colour of fox fur and arresting golden eyes.
There was no mercy in those eyes as they studied me.
Nothing but darkness and ancient cruelty.
‘Did you think you had seen the last of me, Kasmira? That I would allow you to smash my servant’s mind without consequences? ’
‘I didn’t give any thought to you at all,’ I gritted out, even as my vision began to blur and I struggled to remain standing.
Fennec’s teeth flashed in a feral grin. ‘A fatal error.’
I couldn’t bite back my agonised cry. The fire was inside my mind, my heart, my veins. The sound of my flesh sizzling hissed in my ears, and I knew I was dying. Failing, even as I fought with every ounce of my remaining strength to succeed, to help my people–
I took a step forward. Then another.
Fennec’s raspy laugh echoed around me, amused and terrible. That laugh told me that I had seconds left to live.
But a strange instinct kept me moving towards him. The same uncanny certainty I had felt when I had communed with the Sorceress and connected with the elements.
I closed my eyes, blocking out the emotions that would kill me that much sooner. As my intuition expanded, I could sense Fennec’s toxic presence in front of me. I could feel the fire licking at my skin, threatening to devour me.
The fire felt like destruction. Fennec felt like fury.
My eyes snapped open. And I felt it again. The pull .
I reached for Fennec’s arm, heedless of the fact I was about to touch pure fire. Pure power .
Fennec’s smile said that touching him would burn me up that much faster. But–
It was just like at the circus, when I had used my mother’s locket. The flames engulfed me, hungrily licking at my clothes, my skin, my hair, but though I felt their heat, Fennec’s power no longer hurt me. How could it?
I was Fennec.
I was his hunger. His fury. I felt his urge to consume, to devour, to destroy , but I could temper that urge.
So I did.
I drew that urge into me, containing it within my body. And as I did, the image of Fennec exploded in a shower of sparks.
The remaining fire flooded into me or died completely. As the flames disappeared, I became aware of the extent of the destruction. So many dead. Butchered – because of Roran.
My gaze lifted to the raised platform, where he was smiling down at me. My mother’s murderer, confident in the knowledge that he was out of reach. So certain of his victory and my defeat.
‘Kill her,’ his booming voice rang out – and then I heard nothing except the thudding of thousands of boots as Roran’s frontlines advanced in perfect, murderous formation.
A formation that would cut right through me. If I let it.
I shot Roran a smile that was little more than a baring of teeth. The sound of hoofbeats told me that Aric was charging towards me with the rest of the forces he had taken to higher ground.
They would reach me soon – but not soon enough to protect me from those swords and spears. I had no delusions about what I was facing: we had known it would take all our shifters to break through Roran’s perfect killing formations. But I didn’t need to break through his lines.
Already, that sense of connection, of oneness , was fading. It was taking more and more effort to hold onto Fennec’s power, to keep it contained inside me.
Just a few more moments , I told myself as the Warriors advanced, their spiked black armour absorbing the sunlight. Just a little longer –
Arrows rained down as the archers in Roran’s main force began their onslaught. Somewhere behind me, I could hear Aric screaming my name. I probably looked insane, standing in their path without raising my shield.
But I could sense the arrows in a way I hadn’t been able to before.
With everything I had, I pushed back on the arrows, forcing them off course until they were threatening Roran’s forces instead. Forcing the frontlines to stop their advance and raise their shields.
My army was nearly at my side, but I continued walking forward. A few of Roran’s soldiers had gone down – but already they were regrouping, their formations as strong as ever.
Let’s see how strong they are after this , I thought and released Fennec’s power.
It detonated out of me in a searing tidal wave that instantly vaporised Roran’s frontlines, cooking them alive in their amour. Chaos descended, breaking those disciplined lines as soldiers and Warriors fled, trying uselessly to outrun the death at their backs.
Their inhuman screams reminded me of the agonised sounds my shifters had made as they burned alive. Bile clogged my throat at the realisation I had unleashed something equally horrific.
But every time one of the Ravalian soldiers died, it meant that one of mine might live.
My eyes locked with Roran’s furious ones. He unsheathed his sword and whirled on a man standing next to him on the platform. I flinched as the man was cut down without mercy, not understanding until I saw something fall from Roran’s hand. A red jewel. A blood ruby .
I stared at the Artisan’s body in horror. Had Roran really expected him to See outcomes that were influenced by the decisions of a god? A being that didn’t even exist on the mortal plane?
‘Hail Queen Mira! Hail the Sorceress!’ The shouts of the clansmen were almost as loud as their galloping mounts. I turned to see Nari and Gunnar leading their remaining forces, a few paces behind Aric and Conall.
‘Get on!’ Aric shouted, leaning across his stallion and pulling me onto Conall’s armoured back – just in time.
My stomach sank as the fire began to disperse. Barely even singeing the first lines of Roran’s calvary, which parted to let through–
‘Hounds.’ Aric’s voice was like a death knell. ‘Charge!’ he ordered the others. ‘CHARGE NOW!’
Conall barrelled forward, leading the way as he broke through the remaining lines of foot soldiers, with Aric close behind.
But then Roran’s calvary was there, colliding with our forces in an explosion of toppling bodies and spurting blood.
I clung to Conall with everything I had as the world descended into a nightmare.
The screams of fallen warriors and dying horses rent the air – theirs, ours, I couldn’t tell. It was deafening. Disorientating. A mess of blood and death and howling hounds that made horses rear up and toss their riders – allowing Roran’s army to ride through and slaughter the unseated clansmen.
‘WATCH OUT!’ I shouted to Jadis – too late.
A hound leapt up and tore out the throat of her horse, hurling Jadis to the ground, where I immediately lost sight of her. All around me, horses and clansmen went down in a tumble of blades and hooves.
I swung my sword viciously as one of Roran’s Warriors aimed for Aric, separating the Warrior’s head from his body. Aric gasped out something that I took as thanks before engaging his next opponent.
Time blurred as the fighting wore on. So did faces.
I forgot them as soon as I killed them, turning my attention to the next – and the next. Butchering myself a path through Roran’s army as I set my sights on the raised platform where Roran would be waiting.
The sooner Aric or I killed him, the sooner the fighting would stop. I knew we both felt the weight of that responsibility.
Shocked yells erupted from across the plain, and I squinted to see–
‘They did it,’ I shouted to Aric, relief flooding me at the sight of the thousand clansmen descending on Roran’s ranks from behind. Taking them by complete surprise.
Roran’s soldiers scattered, fleeing as Scarlett and Cassius led the charge on a horse that looked half dead. No – there was no half about it. The horse was riddled with gaping wounds, its eyes either wholly black or torn out of their sockets.
Ducking under the next sword that came at me, I dispatched the rider and risked another glance at the clansmen under Scarlett’s command.
Now that they were closer, I could see the same evidence of fatal wounds as the horse.
One of them had a gaping hole in his chest where his heart should have been.
Another was missing an arm. And Ulrik . . . Ulrik was missing his head .
‘Undead!’ A cry rang out from Roran’s side of the army. ‘She’s created an army of the undead!’
More voices rang out, echoing similar cries of horror and dismay as Scarlett’s forces circled around and began killing their way towards the platform. Leaving nothing but corpses in their wake.
‘ Hold your formation! ’ Roran bellowed.
His order might have worked – if not for me. When I was connected to my surroundings, I willed the ground to burst open. Sending Warriors tumbling down the yawning chasm in a roar of falling rock and screeching horses.
The remaining Ravalians shifted into practised formations.
I exchanged a glance with Aric, wanting to help Scarlett but not wanting to leave him.
‘Go!’ Aric ordered me. ‘Use Conall to break down their lines!’
Conall didn’t just break down their lines – he shattered them apart, tossing horses and Warriors aside like rag dolls. My sword cleaved through the air as I helped him, blood spraying in a vicious arc. It splattered across my face like warpaint.
Even Roran’s seasoned Warriors backed away at my approach. Some turned and broke ranks entirely.
A war horse barrelled towards me from an angle.
I turned slightly too late, but before the Warrior could skewer me, Scarlett was there.
She smoothly lopped off his head and jumped off her horse, leaving Cassius to ride on ahead.
I dismounted too, and Conall roared as he raced past Cassius, clearing him a route to Roran.