Kingdom of Ash

by Sarah J. Maas

  Darrow smiled slightly. “I know that, too. But I should like to say one more thing, on this perhaps final night of ours.” He inclined his head to Evangeline. “I never fathered any offspring, nor did I adopt any. It would be an honor to name such a wise, brave young lady as my heir.”

  Absolute silence. Evangeline blinked—and blinked again.

  Darrow went on in the stunned quiet, “I should like to face my enemies knowing that the heart of my lands, of this kingdom, will beat on in the chest of Evangeline. That no matter the gathering shadow, Terrasen will always live in someone who understands its very essence without needing to be taught. Who embodies its very best qualities.” He gestured to Lysandra. “If that is agreeable to you.”

  To make her his ward—and a lady … Evangeline clasped Darrow’s hand. He squeezed back.

  “I …” Lysandra blinked, and turned to her, eyes bright. “It is not my call, is it?”

  So Evangeline smiled up at Darrow. “I would very much like that.”

  The bone drums beat all night long.

  What new horrors would be unleashed with the dawn, Manon didn’t know.

  Sitting beside Abraxos in the aerie tower, she stared with him at the endless sea of blackness.

  It would be over soon. The desperate hope of Aelin Galathynius had flickered out.

  Would any be able to escape once the city walls were breached? And where would they even go? Once Erawan’s shadow settled, would there be any stopping him?

  Dorian—Dorian could. If he had gotten the keys. If he had survived.

  He might be dead. Might be marching on them right now, a black collar around his throat.

  Manon leaned her head against Abraxos’s warm, leathery side.

  She would not be able to see her people home. To bring them to the Wastes.

  Tomorrow—in her wicked, old bones she knew it would be tomorrow that the city walls fell at last. They had no weapons left beyond swords and their own defiance. That would only last so long against the endless force waiting for them.

  Abraxos shifted his wing so that it shielded her from the wind.

  “I would have liked to have seen it,” Manon said quietly. “The Wastes. Just once.”

  Abraxos huffed, nudging her gently with his head. She stroked a hand over his snout.

  And even with the darkness squatting on the battlefield, she could picture it—the rolling, vibrant green that flowed to a thrashing gray sea. A shining city along its shore, witches soaring on brooms or wyverns in the skies above it. She could hear the laughter of witchlings in the streets, the long-forgotten music of their people floating on the wind. A wide, open space, lush and evergreen.

  “I would have liked to have seen it,” Manon whispered again.

  CHAPTER 105

  Blood rained over the battlefield.

  Blood and arrows, so many that as they found marks in Lysandra’s flank, her wings, it barely registered.

  Morath had been reserving its arsenal. Until today.

  With the dawn, they had unleashed such a torrent of arrows that getting into the skies had been a lethal gauntlet. She had not wanted to know how many Crochans had fallen, despite the best efforts of the rebel Ironteeth to shield them with their wyverns’ bodies.

  But most had made it into the air—and right into the onslaught of the Ironteeth legion.

  Below, Morath swarmed with an urgency she had not yet witnessed. A black sea that crashed against the city walls, breaking over it every now and then.

  Siege ladders went up faster than they could be taken down, and now, the sun barely cresting, siege towers inched forward.

  Lysandra barreled into an Ironteeth witch—a Blackbeak, from the dyed leather band on her brow—and tore her from the saddle before ripping out the throat of her wyvern.

  One. Only one out of the mass in the skies.

  She dove, picking another target.

  Then another. And another. It would not be enough.

  And where the Ironteeth legion had been content to engage them in battle these past few weeks, today they pushed. Drove them back foot by foot toward Orynth.

  And there was nothing Lysandra, nor any of the Crochans or rebel Ironteeth, could do to stop it.

  So witches died.

  And below them, on the city walls, soldiers from so many kingdoms died as well.

  The final stand, the last few hours, of their desperate alliance.

  Manon’s breath was a rasp in her throat, her sword arm aching.

  Again and again, they rallied and drove against the Ironteeth legion.

  Again and again, they were shoved back. Back toward Orynth. Toward the walls.

  The Crochan lines were foundering. Even the Ironteeth rebels had begun to fly sloppily.

  How had they fought and fought and still come to this? The Thirteen had given up their lives; her chest was hollowed out, the din of battle still a distant roar over the silence in her head. And yet it had come to this.

  If they kept it up, they would be overrun by nightfall. If they did not reconfigure their plan of attack, they would have nothing left by dawn. Enough remained of her shredded spirit to find that unacceptable. To rage against that end.

  They had to retreat to the city walls. To regroup and use Orynth, the mountains behind it, to their advantage. The longer they lingered in the open air, the deadlier it would become.

  Manon freed the horn from her side and blew twice.

  Crochan and Ironteeth whirled toward her, eyes wide in shock. Manon blew the horn again.

  Fall back, the horn bleated. Fall back to the city.

  The western gate to the city shuddered.

  Where intricate, ancient carvings had once graced the towering iron plates, now only dents and splattered blood remained.

  A thunderous boom echoed throughout the city, the mountains, and Aedion, panting as he fought atop the battlements above the gates, dared to look away from his latest opponent. Dared to survey the wake of the battering ram’s latest blow.

  Soldiers filled the passageway to the gate, more lining the streets beyond it. As many as could be spared from the walls.

  Soon now. Soon the western gate would yield. After thousands of years, it would finally sunder.

  The Sword of Orynth was slick in his bloodied hand, his ancient shield coated with gore.

  Already, people were fleeing to the castle. The brave souls who had lingered in the city all this time, hoping against hope that they might survive. Now they ran, children in their arms, for the castle that would be the final bastion against Morath’s hordes. For however long that would be.

  Hours, perhaps.

  Manon had given the order to pull back, and Crochans and Ironteeth landed upon the wall by the still-steady southern gate, some joining the battle, others holding the line against the enemy aerial legion on their tails.

  The western gate shuddered again, rocking inward, the wood and metal and chains they’d reinforced it with buckling.

  Aedion sensed the enemy rushing at his exposed left and lifted his shield, so infinitely heavy. But a riderless wyvern intercepted the soldier, ripping the man in two before hurling his remains off the battlements.

  With a flash of light, Lysandra was there, snatching up clothes, sword, and shield from a fallen Silent Assassin. “Tell me where to order Manon and the others stationed in the city,” she said, panting hard. A gash ran down her arm, blood leaking everywhere, but she didn’t seem to notice it.

  Aedion tried to sink into that cool, calculating place that had guided him through other battles, other near-defeats. But this was no near-defeat.

  This would be a defeat, pure and brutal. A slaughter.

  “Aedion.” His name was a frantic plea.

  A Valg soldier rushed them, and Aedion split the man from navel to nose with a swipe of the Sword of Orynth. Lysandra barely blinked at the black blood that sprayed onto her face.

  The western gate buckled, iron screaming as it began to peel apart.

  He had t
o go—had to go down there to lead the fight at the gate.

  Where he’d make his last stand. Where he’d meet his end, defending the place he’d loved most. It was the least he could do, with all the warriors who had fallen thanks to him, to his choices. To fall himself for Terrasen.

  A death worthy of a song. An end worthy of being told around a fire.

  If in Erawan’s new world of darkness, flames would be allowed to exist.

  The Morath Ironteeth legion barreled into their rebel kin; the exhausted Crochans alit on the stones as they guzzled down water, checked injuries. A breath before their final push.

  Along the wall, Valg soldiers surged and surged and surged over the battlements.

  So Aedion leaned in, and kissed Lysandra, kissed the woman who should have been his wife, his mate, one last time. “I love you.”

  Sorrow filled her beautiful face. “And I you.” She gestured to the western gate, to the soldiers waiting for its final cleaving. “Until the end?”

  Aedion hefted his shield, flipping the Sword of Orynth in his hand, freeing the stiffness that had seized his fingers. “I will find you again,” he promised her. “In whatever life comes after this.”

  Lysandra nodded. “In every lifetime.”

  Together, they turned toward the stairs that would take them down to the gates. To death’s awaiting embrace.

  A horn cleaved through the air, through the battle, through the world.

  Aedion went still.

  Whirled toward the direction of that horn, to the south. Beyond Morath’s teeming ranks. Beyond the sea of blackness, to the foothills that bordered the edge of Theralis’s sprawling plain.

  Again, that horn blared, a roar of defiance.

  “That’s no horn of Morath,” Lysandra breathed.

  And then they appeared. Along the edge of the foothills. A line of golden-armored warriors, foot soldiers and cavalry alike. More and more and more, a great line spreading across the crest of the final hill.

  Filling the skies, stretching into the horizon, flew mighty, armored birds with riders. Ruks.

  And before them all, sword raised to the sky as that horn blew one last time, the ruby in the blade’s pommel smoldering like a small sun …

  Before them all, riding on the Lord of the North, was Aelin.

  CHAPTER 106

  Through the ancient, forgotten pathways of Oakwald, through the Perranth Mountains, the Lord of the North and Little Folk had led them. Swift and unfaltering, racing against doom, they had made their last push northward.

  They had barely stopped to rest. Had left any unnecessary supplies behind.

  The ruk scouts had not dared to fly ahead for fear of being discovered by Morath. For fear of ruining the advantage in surprise.

  Six days of marching, that great army hurrying behind her.

  Inhospitable terrain smoothed out. Little rivers froze over for their passing. The trees blocked out the falling snow.

  They had traveled through the night yesterday. And when dawn had broken, the Lord of the North had knelt beside Aelin and offered himself as her mount.

  There was no saddle for him; none would ever be permitted or needed. Any rider he allowed on his back, Aelin knew, would never fall.

  Some had knelt when she rode by. Even Dorian and Chaol had inclined their heads.

  Rowan, atop a fierce-eyed Darghan horse, had only nodded. As if he had always expected her to wind up here, at the head of the army that galloped the final hours to the edge of Orynth.

  She had fitted her battle-crown to her head, along with the armor she’d gathered in Anielle, and outfitted herself with whatever spare weapons Fenrys and Lorcan handed to her.

  Yrene, Elide, and the healers would remain in the rear—until ruks could carry them into Orynth. Dorian and Chaol would lead the wild men of the Fangs on the right flank, the khaganate royals on the left, Sartaq and Nesryn in the skies with the ruks. And Aelin and Rowan, with Fenrys, Lorcan, and Gavriel, would take the center.

  The army had spread out as they’d neared the foothills beyond Orynth, the hills that would take them to the edge of Theralis’s plain, and offer their first view of the city beyond it.

  Heart hammering, the Lord of the North unfaltering, Aelin had ascended the last of those hills, the highest and steepest of them, and looked upon Orynth for the first time in ten years.

  A terrible, pulsing silence went through her.

  Where a lovely white city had once glittered between river and plain and mountain …

  Smoke and chaos and terror reigned. The turquoise Florine flowed black.

  The sheer size, the booming of the massive army that thundered against its walls, in the skies above it …

  She hadn’t realized. How large Morath’s army would be. How small and precious Orynth seemed before it.

  “They’re almost through the western gate,” Fenrys murmured, his Fae sight gobbling down details.

  The khagan’s army fanned out around them, across the hill. The crest of a wave soon to break. Yet even the Darghan soldiers hesitated, horses shifting, at the army between them and the city.

  Rowan’s face was grave—grave, yet undaunted, as he took in the enemy.

  So many. So many soldiers. And the Ironteeth legion above them.

  “The Crochans fight at the city walls,” Gavriel observed.

  Indeed, she could barely make out the red cloaks.

  Manon Blackbeak had not broken her vow.

  And neither would she.

  Aelin glanced at her hand, hidden beneath the gauntlet. To where a scar should have been.

  I promise you that no matter how far I go, no matter the cost, when you call for my aid, I will come.

  There would be no time for speeches. No time to rally the soldiers behind her.

  They were ready. And so was she.

  “Sound the call,” Aelin ordered Lorcan, who lifted a horn to his lips and blew.

  Down the line, heralds from the khaganate sent up their own horns in answer. Until they were all one great, bellowing note, racing toward Orynth.

  They blew the horns again.

  Aelin drew Goldryn from its sheath across her back and hefted her shield as she lifted the sword to the sky. As a thread of her magic pierced the ruby in the pommel and set it glowing.

  The Darghan soldiers pointed their suldes forward, wood creaking, horsehair whipping in the wind.

  Down the line, Princess Hasar and Prince Kashin trained their own spears at the enemy army. Dorian and Chaol drew their blades and aimed them ahead.

  Rowan unsheathed his sword, a hatchet in his other hand, his face like stone. Unbreakable.

  The horns blew a third and final time, the rallying cry singing out across the bloody plain.

  The Lord of the North reared up, jutting Goldryn higher into the sky, and Aelin unleashed a flash of fire through the ruby—the signal the army behind her had awaited.

  For Terrasen. All of it, for Terrasen.

  The Lord of the North landed, the immortal flame within his antlers shining bright as he began the charge. The army around and behind her flowed down the hillside, gaining with each step, barreling toward Morath’s back ranks.

  Barreling toward Orynth.

  Toward home.

  Onward into battle they charged, undaunted and raging.

  The queen atop the white stag did not balk with each gained foot toward the awaiting legions. She only flipped her sword in her hand—once, twice, shield arm tucking in tight.

  The immortal warriors at her side did not hesitate, either, their eyes fixed upon the enemy ahead.

  Faster and faster, the khaganate’s cavalry galloping beside her, the front line forming, holding, as they neared the first of Morath’s back lines.

  The enemy turned toward them now. Pointed spears; archers racing into position.

  The first impact would hurt. Many would go down before they even reached it.

  But the front line had to make it. They could not break.

  From
the enemy lines, an order arose. “Archers!”

  Bowstrings groaned, targets were fixed.

  “Volley!”

  Great iron arrows blotted out the sun, aiming for the racing cavalry.

  But ruks, golden and brown and black as night, dove, dove, dove from the skies, flying wing to wing. And as those arrows arced toward the earth, the ruks intercepted them, taking the brunt as they shielded the charging army beneath them.

  Ruks went down.

  And even the queen leading the charge wept in rage and grief as the birds and their riders crashed to the earth. Above her, taking arrow after arrow, shield raised to the skies, a young rider roared her battle cry.

  The front lines could not break.

  Ironteeth witches on wyverns banked toward them, toward the ruks soaring for their exposed back.

  In the city, along Orynth’s walls, a white-haired queen bellowed, “Push! Push! Push!”

  Exhausted witches took to the skies, on broom and beast, swords lifting. Racing for the front of the aerial legion turning to the ruks. To crush the Ironteeth legion between them.

  On the bloody ground, Morath aimed spears, pikes, swords, anything they bore at the thundering cavalry.

  It was not enough to stop them.

  Not when shields of wind and flame and blackest death locked into place—and sliced into the front lines of Morath.

  Felling the soldiers braced for battle. Exposing those behind still waiting to raise weapons.

  Leaving Morath wide open for the golden army as it slammed into them with the force of a tidal wave.

  CHAPTER 107

  Rowan’s breath was a steady rasp in his throat as he charged through the lines of Valg soldiers, screaming ringing out around him. Nearby, cutting a swath through Morath’s masses, Aelin and the Lord of the North fought. Soldiers swarmed, but neither queen nor stag balked.

  Not when Aelin’s flame, reduced as it was, kept any in her blind spots from landing a blow.

  The Darghan cavalry shoved Morath back, and above them, ruks and wyverns clashed.

  Beasts, feathered and scaled, crashed to the earth.

  Still Borte fought above the queen, guarding her from the Ironteeth who spotted that white stag, as good as a banner amid the sea of darkness, and aimed for her. At Borte’s side, her betrothed guarded their flank, and Falkan Ennar, in ruk form, guarded her other.