CHAPTER 43 #2
They’ll slaughter them all before they even make it to shore.
Without thinking, she dropped her reins and threw her hands up – reaching across the distance to the water – and a new dome of ruby and gold rippled over the bay.
It sealed itself above the thrashing sailors swimming desperately to shore.
Arrows of shadow struck her shield, sending stars dancing across her vision as she held it.
Her shield wouldn’t last. The dark magic was clawing at her already, draining her strength.
Sebastian jerked his head towards her. She could barely breathe. “Help them,” she hissed through gritted teeth. “I can’t do this forever.”
“Men,” he yelled without hesitation, “With me – pull them in!”
He surged forward, Tobias riding at his side as Thorne soldiers rallied, breaking from the lines as they’d practised to drag the drowning sailors to safety. The strain tore fire through her arms, but she didn’t relent.
Just a little longer.
Sebastian threw himself from the saddle the moment he hit the waterline, wading waist-deep into the surf, hauling men up. One broke the surface coughing, choking, clearly badly injured, blood streaming through his clothing. Kara recognised him even from the distance.
Jax.
She watched in relief as Sebastian caught him by the arm and dragged him towards shore, his emerald flaring, healing.
Seven years of Healers’ study – his instinct now.
Thorne soldiers surged in beside him, hands outstretched, pulling sailors onto the sand.
The Navyrians wasted no time. As soon as they were safely under Fatàn’s smaller dome, which shimmered to admit them, they unsheathed their blades, soaked and furious, and formed up shoulder to shoulder with Thorne ranks.
They turned as one to face the black tide now pouring from Draken ships, voices rising in fury and grief –
“For peace we sacrifice!”
“The tide does not break!”
Thorne and Navyrian voices roared together across the sand.
Not separate Houses now. Just Vallennan.
Her shield groaned, dark veins crawling across it, and vanished as Fatàn’s had.
It had been enough though. They’d got their people to shore.
Sebastian hauled the last sailor from the water, then swung back into the saddle, drenched, and rode back to her side, his father just ahead of him.
“Well done, Kara,” Sebastian shouted over the chaos. Then he turned on his men: “Hold your positions! Back to the lines – now! Let Sorrel and Lyra do their work!” he bellowed.
The order rippled outward. Thorne soldiers dragged the remaining sailors back to the line, and Jax stumbled into place beside them, blade in hand. He looked up at Kara, recognition flashing across his face as the shimmer of golden magic faded from her skin.
“Nice one, Hale!” he bellowed, grinning. She grinned back in spite of herself.
“Stay alive, Jax!” she called down as she unsheathed her sword.
“Plan on it!”
Sorrel bows were already bending along the ridges above them, and standing firmly with them Kara glimpsed violet light gathering at Lyran hands and the glint of Durent axes manning the walls behind them.
But when she gazed back out to the sea, figures were descending from the Draken decks.
Thousands wading towards them. Kara saw them clearly for the first time.
A wave of revulsion hit her. They looked human...
but not. Their skin was deathly pale, veins as black as ink snaked beneath the surface, and their eyes were dark fire, sunken deep into shadowed hollows.
Their shouts sounded more like hisses and snarls than actual voices.
That’s what the Dracanth did to them?
They ran in hordes towards Fatàn’s barrier, and Sorrel let their arrows fall, the shield magic allowing their strikes through.
Some arrows thudded into pale chests, dropping them where they stood – but too many hardly faltered, snarling as they tore the arrows free.
More still forced themselves forward, trampling over the bodies of the fallen.
The bond flared sharply in her chest. Not just dread, but something raw and cold, like ice water in her veins.
Lyran violet magic showered down, waves of fear and dread rippling over the Draken ranks.
Some of the Draken stumbled, wild-eyed, their minds breaking beneath the terror.
But others answered with ebony power, shadows bursting from their veins, and they kept coming, teeth bared.
The dome shook when they hit it at the shoreline.
Black tendrils spread across the shield where their palms pressed, dark magic gnawing at the ruby barrier until that one shattered like glass too.
Fatàn’s shieldweavers fell back, conserving their strength – covering the archers and healers instead.
The Drakens hit the beach in a rush – terrifyingly fast – a wave of coldness coming to shore with them.
Durent men answered, amber light blazing as they heaved boulders down from the barricades, soaring over Thorne’s ranks, crushing scores of Drakens.
But for every one broken, three more rushed across the sand. It was endless.
“Hold! Hold!” Sebastian’s voice cut across the chaos.
A wall of Thorne steel shifted forward, shields locking, blades raised. Kara raised her own, her heart hammering against her ribs.
Please let us survive this.
There was no time to think before the clash came – steel on steel, the roar of two armies colliding.
Kara fought from the saddle – her blade meeting a Draken’s with a jarring shock that rattled her arms. Too strong.
Too fast. She gritted her teeth, flared crimson, and shoved him back.
Her valmare stamped angrily, and she struck again.
He fell to the ground hard. Beside her, Sebastian was a storm of skill and power, his sword flashing, his mount driving forward into the tide.
He forced them back with shock waves of Fatàn magic, stronger by far than hers had been, protecting them and as many of the closest soldiers as he could.
The bond burned with his fury, every strike precise, ruthless, and deadly.
No sooner had his blade found one Draken’s throat than he was spinning to slice through the torso of the next.
Bodies falling at his feet. He didn’t slow.
Didn’t hesitate. She could see, finally, exactly how he’d earned his reputation.
But even he couldn’t guard her from all sides.
Though he was trying. Fighting three on his left whilst his gaze kept snapping to her right.
“Focus on yourself!” she shouted at him as another Draken lunged for her stirrup. She kicked out, drove her sword down, the tip slicing through pale flesh. Dark, black-tinged blood spurted across the sand. Her hands shook – revulsion and adrenaline both – but she didn’t stop.