Chapter 60 Siege
Chapter sixty
Siege
Alaceandra
Emerging from the tunnels, I look to see where the prince is but instead freeze. Rubble and ash surround me instead of the hallway I was expecting to see. I look to my left and notice the prince standing there, a grim look on his face.
"Why did you stop?" Sorin yells from below me.
"It is… gone." The beautiful cottage that once stood here is now piled around me.
Little bits of linens and cookware are strewn about.
The village that once towered around us is also a charred husk of its former self.
The belongings of the villagers lay in the streets, abandoned.
Sculpted walls are now piles of rock littered as far as the eye can see.
Above us, elvisera soar through the skies, their riders barely perceptible in the distance.
I blink rapidly, my brain not able to grasp what I am seeing.
And the noise. Clattering metal and blood curdling screams echo through the village in a low terrible roar.
"What is gone?"
"Come here, Alaceandra. Let him through."
I slowly finish making my way out of the hatch. Sorin makes quick work of climbing up the ladder. We all stand in what was once Sylvie's cottage.
"This is really bad," Sorin says.
"You don't say," the prince replies sarcastically, kicking a pipe. A loud clang echoes through the space. Someone sprints towards us in the distance.
"We should find cover. It is not safe out here.
" Sorin grabs my arm and we run towards the trees.
Crouching, we watch as the man runs closer to where the cottage once stood.
With a scream, he trips and falls over an abandoned doll.
A soldier in burgundy and black armor follows close behind wielding some kind of pointed bat.
Catching up to the man, he swings the huge weapon.
With a sickening thwap, the man collapses.
Blood sprays, painting the soldier's face and the surrounding area the same burgundy color as the attacker’s armor.
He laughs before sauntering back towards the village.
A loud roar makes us all jump. We glance up to see one of the elvisera diving down and spraying more fire over the already burned remains of buildings.
"We need to get out of here," Sorin whispers.
"But what about Sam? He ran out ahead of us."
"Maybe we will find him on the way out. We cannot wait around for him."
"But the village is enclosed, the only way out of here is to go through…that." I motion towards the wreckage.
"I know, we will have to tread carefully, but the more we stand in one place the higher our chances of being seen. Let's go," Sorin says.
"Sorin is correct, I am sure that Sam will be able to handle himself in the meantime but it is much too dangerous for us to be hanging about."
Using what is left of the forest as coverage we slowly make our way deeper into the village.
The villagers are fighting the men with burgundy and black armor in the streets with everything they have.
Swords clang against axes and hammers. Arrows fly through the air and seemingly strike at random.
Dead villagers are thrown to the side once defeated, the armored men's laughter echoes through the air as they take life after life.
The stench of death and blood are heavy in the air.
A child's cry has my gaze swinging to the nearest building. A soldier has a man hanging over a table, his arms pinned behind him while another stands crouched in front of his face speaking to him.
"Where is she?" the armored man yells.
"Who? I do not know who you are-" The armored man stands and swings his axe. The villager's head falls to the ground.
"Daddy!" the child cries.
My eyes widen as the men advance on the child and, before I know it, my legs are moving.
My body is propelled by instinct rather than thought as fire surges from my palm and into the nearest soldier.
My bracelet glows as I make contact with the man's armor and a moment later the burgundy and black suit cracks allowing my fire to penetrate to his skin.
He screams and tries to bat at the flames.
My heartbeat is thumping through my ears as I take in what I have just done.
"Lace!" I hear Sorin's shout in the distance and I snap out from my daze. Turning, I approach the next armored man.
Using his panic to my advantage, I slice my dagger across the man's throat. He looks at me and his eyes bulge before his body falls to the ground. My body hums as my fire engulfs the man. Suddenly I am yanked back, my arms pulled firmly behind my back.
"There you are." Another soldier breathes into my ear.
I kick back and stomp on the man's foot. His grip on my arms tightens painfully and I struggle against his hold. "Stop moving, brat. I-" His grip loosens and I swing around to blast him with fire but see a bloody vine ripping itself through the man's chest. Sorin.
I turn to face the child but see that the prince is already crouching next to him, wiping at his tears.
The child nods at whatever the prince said, holding an object close to his chest, then runs towards the wood line.
The prince watches the little boy run until he has disappeared, obscured by the trees, and starts to walk over to me.
Something touches my shoulder and I swing around again, ready to face my next attacker, but it is only Sorin. "We need to keep moving." He says. I nod.
We also start to move back towards the trees but another shout catches our attention. "She's over there!" A woman screams.
The prince pushes me back. "Run!" He yells as several men in armor turn in our direction.
"What are you going to-" The air stirs and something glows in the prince’s hands and along his back.
"Is that a bow? I did not know you could do that." I marvel at the prince's newly formed weapon.
"There are a lot of things you don't know and a lot of things you never will if you do not get moving right now." He fires off a shot and a man falls in the distance. The prince’s eyes have turned a brilliant lavender.
"But—" my hand is yanked by Sorin pulling me away. Something whizzes by my head.
"You can't kill her asshole; he would kill us all."
A man grunts. I turn my head in the direction the object flew and see a small hammer lying on the ground. Did he throw that?
"You have to keep moving," Sorin says.
I return my focus to what is ahead and run.
The prince stays at our back, letting loose several arrows to keep the soldiers away.
We weave through the village, trying to make it to the entrance.
Sorin's vine whips out in front of us taking down any men in our way.
More fighting breaks out, staining the dirt crimson.
We navigate through a maze of fallen bodies of villagers and soldiers alike.
I try to bite back the overwhelming guilt that fills me when I look into their blank stares.
We lose the soldiers by ducking into one of the buildings that despite all odds is still intact.
Crouching in its entrance, we watch as the men run by.
"Where did she go?!" We hear one shout.
"Why are they killing so many people?" I whisper to Sorin and the prince.
"I don't know," Sorin whispers back, grabbing my hand and squeezing. Sorin’s eyes are now a deep gold.
"They are looking for me."
"They will not get you," the prince says, his voice a low rumble.
I nod, but squeeze Sorin's hand a little tighter.
A shout echoes in the distance and we peek out of the building to see Sam fighting off some men by the village entrance.
His eyes are black and shadows surround him, cloaking his body.
Little black daggers explode from his form and embed themselves into the armor of the men surrounding him. One by one they crumble.
On the other side of him a tiny creature runs over soldiers' feet, causing white bursts of light to shoot from the soil.
The armored men turn to ash before reforming into pale, unnatural versions of themselves.
With jerky movements they turn their weapons on each other, bludgeoning their fellow soldiers as if they were enemies, until they too are unrecognizable.
"Sam? Baldar?" I whisper. Another roar sounds above us and the room we are in heats up dramatically as fire starts to lick at the building's walls.
"We need to go!" Sorin screams.
We throw ourselves back out onto the streets, but there are soldiers everywhere we turn. We skate along the sides of abandoned food carts and burned buildings, but we are spotted almost instantly.
"The princess!" Someone wails and some of the soldiers turn towards us, surrounding us.
"Shit." Sorin wraps one of his vines around a man and throws him away from us.
Rotating, he uses another vine as leverage to kick a different soldier in the chest. The man hits the ground hard.
Snatching a thorn from his vine Sorin uses it as a makeshift dagger and slits the man's throat.
On the other side of me, the prince transforms his bow into a broadsword.
With deft precision, he slices off his opponents' arms before stabbing them in the stomach.
Something smacks against my arm and I grunt as pain fills me.
Turning, I find another man wielding a bat-like object.
He lifts his arms to swing at me again and I stab him with my dagger before setting him on fire, the humming within me growing stronger.
Another man tries to make a grab for me, his forearm surrounding my throat.
I slice his arm and kick him in the knee, making him buckle.
Turning, I stab my dagger into his eye and push him to the ground.
My arm dangles uselessly at my side and I try to ignore the pain.