CHAPTER 41 #2
When Lispen was lanced through the gut, I cried out as far too much blood gushed from her wound.
Ivank rushed forward, killing the soldier that wounded her and pushing more back.
Raif dropped to her side, abandoning the fight entirely, and cradled her head in his lap.
His lips mouthed No, but they made no sound. I reached for my magic again—nothing.
“Please,” I begged Vaya’la, and though I felt her comfort, I could not hear her voice.
Teke collapsed with multiple stab wounds to the torso when they jumped in front of Lex, stopping what would have been a killing blow to him. Lex pulled them back away from the enemy before another death blow could fall.
Still, the Inraen soldiers pressed on. Not even the skill of the Riht could overcome so many.
Blood and gore splattered, vigilant in my role as witness, until every single Riht except for Eldreth and Sellan had collapsed with wounds that were incapacitating or would soon be fatal.
My entire ranng, holding on until the last, lay around us in pools of blood.
Raif alone was uninjured, but judging by the way he wept as he pressed his hand over Lispen’s stomach in a desperate bid to staunch the flow, he bore a wound just as deep.
Sellan was the last to go down. It was only after he was slashed across the chest, leaving Eldreth’s lone figure in front of me and Bale, Gerta still tucked behind us, that Lord Fethersen called for a pause.
He had not even dismounted. “You have all fought valiantly today, but you are beaten. Send forth the Cavendaffes, and you will be released to your boat to save those few of your wounded that might yet live.”
Eldreth adjusted his stance and spat blood onto the beach. He had taken a wound to the head, but I couldn’t tell how serious it was through the rivulets pouring down his cheek.
“The choice is simple.” Fethersen continued. I had always known the rotund man as one of fairness and reason. “You can all die where you lay, or you can give up what was not yours to begin with. The Cavendaffes will not be harmed.”
“Serae goes with the Riht. You can have me in her place.” Eldreth’s voice boomed over the army, making Fethersen’s sound weak in comparison. At his words, my knees threatened to collapse.
Tam stepped forward a few paces past his father’s horse and laughed, but there was no mirth in his voice—only bitterness.
He had dismounted again on the pretense of commanding the soldiers, but he had not raised his sword that day.
Perhaps he couldn’t, missing two fingers from his right hand and untrained with his left.
“You’re hardly in a position to negotiate. ”
Eldreth ignored Tam and spoke directly to Lord Fethersen. “She’s nothing to you but vanity. Take the heir, and take me. She is the second daughter and worth very little to you.”
“If you think you can—”
“Agreed,” the margrave interrupted from somewhere behind the ranks. Cold dread flooded me, choking off my scream into a drawn-out whimper. He couldn’t. I had to stop this.
Gerta gripped my arm, holding me in place.
Bale did not move from my side, but Eldreth stepped forward.
He sheathed his sword at his back and continued walking until he was right in front of Tam.
He stared down at the smaller man and waited, an angel of death standing before a mere mortal.
With his black leathers, blood-smeared plate, and imposing frame, the image was uncanny.
To his credit, Tam did not back down. “Let him pass,” he commanded. A frightening grin overtook his face.
The soldiers parted down the center, leaving an uneven path directly to the margrave, who had also yet to dismount.
Eldreth walked down the lines while I looked on in horror, unable to speak.
He stopped at the center of the circle, directly in front of the margrave’s horse.
Tam followed, leaving his back to me. I searched the ground for an intact bow.
“No!” Yaego screamed, squeezing a gash in her side as blood gushed from the wound.
At her side, Raif was clutching Lispen’s body to his. She had gone still in his arms. He pressed a kiss to her forehead, shifted her still form to the ground, and rose to his feet. Tears welled in my eyes, but his face hardened with resolve.
“For the Riht,” he whispered and surged forward.
He ran straight for Tam’s back with his blade raised, kicking up pebbles from the beach.
His sword sliced diagonally with enough force to cleave Tam in two, but at the last moment, Raif jerked, and the strike fell short.
Tam dropped to the ground and scrambled away.
Raif’s grip on his sword loosened, and the blade toppled to the sand. Tears streaked down my face as he sank to his knees, twisting to reveal the two crossbolts embedded in his gut. His lips moved, and his breath wheezed, but no words came out.
Tam lurched back to his feet and approached Raif with fury in his eyes.
He placed a boot on Raif’s chest and kicked.
I watched on helplessly as Raif collapsed to his back.
Blood pooled onto the pebbled sand, but he struggled until he’d rolled enough for his eyes to lock on Lispen’s expressionless face.
Her lifelight was barely a wisp around her.
His lips formed the words, Soon, love. Soon. I could only watch as his lifelight began to dim.
“On your knees.” Tam’s voice drew me away from the senseless loss. I barely recognized it, thick with so much hatred.
“No,” I sobbed, finally finding my own voice. “No, please, no.” I looked to my father, whose eyes were cold with triumph. “If you ever loved me, please, give me this. Don’t kill him. I will stay. I’ll do whatever you command. Please!”
His smile was cruel. “The death of the next high dane far outweighs any secrets you hold, child. I am done with you.” To a soldier at his side, he ordered, “Shoot her if she tries to interfere.”
The soldier leveled his crossbow directly at me, but Eldreth stepped into its path.
“No!” I screamed, lunging forward, but Gerta locked her arms around mine, holding me back. Bale, sword raised, edged forward.
Eldreth dropped to his knees. Despite the death around us and the direness of our situation, he smirked. “It’s your turn,” he said directly to me. There was no fear in his eyes. “I trust you.”
A sob racked through me. I lunged again and nearly broke free, but Gerta and Bale forced me behind them.
Gerta rounded on me, gripping my face and taking up my whole view.
“Do not watch, my lady.” Tears rolled down her cheeks, but the lines of her face were hard.
“We follow him to the land of the Creator. It will all be over soon. I’m sorry that it ends this way, but you have been my truest friend. I am glad to meet my end at your side.”
“NO!” I screamed, and something feral broke free inside me.
I would not let Eldreth die. My next scream shook the earth.
I called upon my power and felt a whisp of it at the edge of my mind, begging to return in full force.
I just had to find a way to reach it. I stepped forward, pushing Gerta to the side.
She latched onto my arm and yanked, but there was no stopping me now.
A warning shot whizzed by, splashing in the water behind me. Ignoring it, I tugged us forward.
The second shot connected with something solid.
Gerta’s body jerked, and her grip on my arm loosened.
Shock widened her eyes as the breath huffed from her lungs.
She started to slip, and I gripped her, steadying her.
Her head shook, and she fell to her knees, crossbolt buried between her ribs.
“Tell her…” The words died on her lips. Her lifelight winked out, and her body went limp in my arms. It had pierced her heart.
She was gone.
“No,” I whispered, shaking her. But her head lolled to the side.
“No!” I shouted, tears falling from my eyes. She couldn’t be gone. Those shots were meant for me, not her. My chest imploded, as surely as if I had taken the arrow through my own heart.
“Bring her back!” I screamed, voice tearing through my throat.
Bale was behind me, wrapping his arms around me and Gerta. “I’ve got you.”
But as his hand touched the exposed skin of my arm, the reach in my mind expanded.
Vaya’la’s light flooded me alongside something scorching hot.
I gripped it, forcing it into Gerta, but it recoiled.
Gritting my teeth, I tried again, bending the light and demanding it heal her. There was nothing left to heal.
But this twinned power, coiling within my core, begged to be used.
I let her go. Pressing a kiss to her forehead, I laid her body onto the pebbled beach. Turning away from her, I slipped my hand into Bale’s and squeezed. Power, bright and burning, swirled through me until I was sure it would burst through my skin.
“Together,” Vaya’la spoke into my mind alongside another’s voice. “Trust.”
Turning back to the army of men—led by nobles playing at war—my heart hardened.
I would give them exactly what they deserved.
Eldreth’s eyes were locked on mine with such sympathy that, if I took the time to look back, I might break in two.
Tam’s blade was drawn and held in his left hand.
He took two steps toward Eldreth and dared to place his steel against that beautiful throat.
The storm inside raged. The wall of black grief that was descending halted and began to recede. In its wake, I found control.
My hand tightened even stronger around Bale’s, and he gripped mine just as fiercely. I didn’t know how or why, just that we needed to stay connected. I turned to him, and his eyes shone bright yellow with live, flickering flames. Whatever he saw in me ripped a gasp from his throat.
“Hold on,” I said, and my free hand shot to the trees.
“Wake.” We spoke as one voice, and the trees listened.