‘Never say that again!’ he gasped a moment later, their heated pants mingling as they struggled to catch their breath. ‘Never say that you would follow me in death! What of Eleaza and Kaleb? What of the rest of your kin?’
Mila inhaled shakily, remorse bringing a bitter taste to the back of her throat.
‘You must live,’ said Aäron, his tone turning heartbreakingly gentle. ‘Promise me this. That you will live. That you will never look back. That you will carry on treading the path that was always yours to follow. A path where your strength and compassion will relieve other human cities and nations of any misery and tyranny that afflict them. A path where you champion the weak and the just and all those who will stand next to you.’ He paused and softly wiped away the tears trembling on her eyelashes. ‘I grew up despising you and your kind,’ he continued in a voice that quivered. ‘But yet, here I am. Standing at your side, willing to lay down my life for this noble cause. And for you, my queen.’
Mila closed her arms around his waist and rested her cheek against his chest, listening to his strong heartbeat, imprinting the sound in her mind so she could recall it later, in the hundreds of empty years to come, until her very last moment upon this world.
They reached Uryl at dusk the next day, the scattered troops they encountered on the way dispatched with ease. But instead of the last stand they expected to have to make outside the capital, they found the city deserted, its gates open and its army absent, the signs of a fierce battle in evidence. The thrones of the palace stood empty and pyres of the dead burned on the plains.
It was as she stood in the shadows of the kings’ statues in the main plaza with Aäron, Megash, and her Immortal kin, unease filling her while the human alliance celebrated jubilantly around them, that the alarm came.
Mila’s anxiety at not finding her mother and her children in the city intensified as she stared toward the gates leading to the moat, her hand on the handle of her sword.
A commotion accompanied the fading sound of the horn. Then, the crowd parting before him, silence spreading out in a slow circle where he passed, sitting tall and proud on his stallion, came King Bastian.
He pulled up a short distance from where they stood and dismounted, his gaze never leaving her as he approached. He was dressed in full battle armor, a sight Mila last recalled seeing over a hundred years ago.
‘I have been waiting for you,’ he said coolly.
‘Helena? The children?’ Mila said between numb lips.
‘I got them out of the city and took them to Eridug ten days ago,’ said Bastian. ‘Most of the citizens from Uryl are there now, along with some six hundred soldiers who wish to join your alliance. Helena will take Eleaza and Kaleb to meet the other queens in the South Desert tonight.’
A wave of relief washed over Mila at this news. Aäron squeezed her shoulder lightly.
‘Does your presence here mean you are willing to stand with us, father?’ said Hosanna, her face pale. She looked around the plaza and at the evidence of a conflict they had not instigated. ‘Was it you who took Uryl?’
Bastian dipped his chin. ‘Yes. I had to end this madness.’ He stared at Mila again, his expression hardening. ‘When the time comes, you must let me take care of Crovir. Can you promise me this?’
Mila returned his gaze unflinchingly amid the surprised murmurs rising around them. ‘I cannot. For the sake of Romerus. For the sake of my children. For the sake of the boy he killed in Issin and the thousands of lives he has taken. If I get to him first, I will stop him.’
Bastian watched her for a silent moment, a muscle jumping in his jawline.
‘You are indeed the child of my brother!’ he snapped. A frustrated sigh left his lips. ‘I expected no other answer. We will settle this later. Come, we must gather everyone and hurry.’
Tobias frowned. ‘Why? And where to?’
Apprehension filled Mila at the look in Bastian’s eyes.
‘The reason you did not find Crovir here today is because he is gathering a second army from the North, one he has kept a secret from everyone except Kronos it seems,’ he said bitterly. ‘It is an army he has amassed over many years, barbarians and mercenaries from the farthest reaches of the Caucasia Mountains and the frozen lands beyond. The very worst kind of warriors, those who would spill the blood of their own kin in exchange for riches. There are more than five thousand of them, not counting the army of the Empire, and they will crush anything and anyone in their path on their way here.’ He paused, an anguished grimace twisting his features for a moment. ‘It is folly I could no longer ignore, hence why I am standing in front of you right now.’
Horrified gasps sounded from the commanders and captains within earshot. Aäron’s knuckles whitened at his sides as Bastian’s words were conveyed through the crowd.
‘We must warn the troops in the other cities and outposts,’ said Baruch.
Mila looked at him and the rest of her kin before meeting the eyes of the leaders of the human alliance, her gaze landing on Aäron last. As panicked uproar spread around them, she saw the same icy resolve dawn on all their faces.
She turned to Bastian. ‘When will they get here?’
‘Three days, four at most.’
Chapter Thirty-Six
Bastian’s prediction proved to be wrong by several days. By the time they reached Eridug at dawn, the fires of the barbarian army and the Empire’s soldiers were already visible on the horizon to the north.
More than half the women and nearly all the children at the fortress had already disappeared into the desert, on their way to the relative safety of the coastline of the South Sea. The rest refused to leave, determined to stay at their husbands’ sides to the very end. Many joined their ranks, arming themselves with whatever weapons they could find at the garrison. Along with every able-bodied man and youth from the capital, they stood atop the ramparts of the defensive wall, soldiers once loyal to the Empire beside those of the alliance, their fear overshadowed by their will to survive as they faced enemy troops nearly double their size.
Having arranged their men in a thick defensive square around the fortress, the Immortals and the human leaders took the full brunt of the initial attacks. Over a thousand men perished on that first day. Everyone knew this would be the decisive battle of the war.
On the morning of the second day, Hosanna fell, struck in the neck by an arrow. Rafael healed her, and Phebe and Ysa protected her body until she awoke from death. In that time, Baruch killed nearly a hundred men in his wrath. That evening, Malachi suffered a death, victim of an axe injury that cleaved him from navel to neck. As he lay bleeding and unmoving, Navia unleashed a psychic blast that extinguished the consciousness of nearly two hundred enemy soldiers.
When Navia was struck in the heart by the errant spear of a Caucasus mercenary on the dawn of the third day, Jared went berserk, his elemental powers creating a sandstorm that choked and buried hundreds. Later, he too perished, overcome by nearly ten dozen men.
And so all the Immortals met their death at least once as day turned into night, even King Bastian. All except Mila, whose body vibrated with an ungodly energy that made it impossible for anyone to harm her.
On the fourth day, the Empire’s army breached the east flank of their defenses and reached the fortress. As she fought to reestablish the fallen front with Aäron, Megash, and Governor Tanis, the screams of women and children rose at their backs.
‘Do not look away from the enemy before you!’ Mila shouted at the distressed soldiers around her. ‘You will hold this line so that no more of them may pass!’
The men steeled themselves at her command and faced the Empire’s army while Eridug burned behind them. By the time the sun set, their defenses had all but fallen and they were forced to retreat from the outpost.
‘Are you certain this will work?’ said Hosanna grimly, her breath leaving her lips in shallow pants.
Mila frowned. ‘This is likely to be our last charge.’ She glanced at the battle-weary
soldiers gathered on the elevation behind them. ‘It is the only strategy Aäron and I could think of that may give us an advantage in the current situation.’
‘It is a clever one,’ said Baruch.
‘But unpredictable,’ murmured Rafael.
‘We have never tried anything like this before,’ added Ysa.
Tobias shrugged and wiped sweat from his face. ‘We do not exactly have a choice. And there is a first time for everything.’
Jared winced and pressed a hand against his chest before gripping his broadsword. ‘I agree.’
Beatrix cast a worried look his way.
They were standing on a low hill to the northwest of Eridug. Stretching out before them was a battlefield covered in the corpses of those who had fallen these past days and nights, desert sand crimson from spilled blood and gore.
The sky reflected the color of death as the sun raced toward the horizon from the dark side of the world, the reddening heavens ahead rendered even more ominous by the vast flocks of carrion birds circling above them. The creatures’ shrieks and screeches bounced off the sand dunes as they alighted on severed limbs and heads.
Beyond the remains of the dead stood the enemy’s army, their vast troops outnumbering those of the alliance by a significant fraction. Behind the southern frontline of the silent hostile mass, flames continued to rage through the last outpost of the Empire, the black smoke spiraling from the burning buildings more evident as night turned to day. Shrill screams occasionally tore the air. The thick, metal gates guarding the garrison lay buckled and twisted from the constant battering they had received.
Even though Jared had recovered from his death and had his injuries healed by Rafael, there was still some residual stiffness where a dozen swords had entered his heart only two days before. And it was not exactly as if he had had time to rest and recover since.
He looked at Navia where she stood in full battle armor to his right. For all that he had repaired the hole in her chest shield, he could still see traces where the spear had torn through the metal.
He knew she had experienced several deaths in the years before she became a regiment commander, but he had never seen her perish in front of his eyes. Witnessing her fall for the first time had filled him with a fury like none he had experienced before, and he swore he would do his utmost to never have to suffer such a sight again.
As if she sensed his thoughts, Navia glanced over at him before gazing at the soldiers of the alliance behind them. The expression he glimpsed in the depths of her green eyes in that brief moment sent an ache through his heart that had little to do with his recent wounds.
He knew then with the utmost certainty that she harbored the same forbidden feelings for him as he did for her.
‘Are you ready, cousin?’ said Mila on her right.
Navia’s gaze shifted to the Red Queen, the bittersweet emotions raging through her heart abating in the face of the indomitable, pale gray eyes staring back at her.
‘Yes,’ she replied in a confident voice.
As the primary tool of the first wave of their attack, she stood in the middle of the line of Immortals leading the final assault.
‘Let us go then, sister,’ said Baruch to her left.
He flashed her a fierce smile. Navia gazed lovingly at her older brother and nodded. Then she gripped the bloodstained broadsword in her hands and raced down the incline, a savage sound tearing from her throat as she reached inside herself to the source of her powers.
Her siblings, cousins, and the army of the alliance followed after her, their own battle cries tearing the air asunder as they charged toward the troops rushing across the plains to meet them. When a third of the Empire’s soldiers had crossed the field, Navia let her abilities loose and focused on the minds of the enemy’s sweeping numbers.
Thousands froze in their tracks behind the initial tide, bodies immobilized for the briefest of moments by the terrible energy gripping their heads.
It was all the time the alliance needed.
As the enemy troops faltered, Jared clenched his jaw and released his elemental powers. Sand rose between the soldiers of the Empire in the forefront of the surge and those temporarily crippled behind them, thick, fountaining walls of spinning grit some ten feet high that lifted many off their feet and sent them tumbling to the ground.
With Navia continuing to advance, paralyzing further sections of the enemy troops with her mind, he raised more walls, separating their startled enemy.
Mila smiled savagely.
If their numbers are double ours and their assaults overwhelm us, then the best way to fight back is to divide them.
It was Aäron who had spoken those words the previous evening, during a brief reprieve in the war. Mila had stared at him, surprised once more by his tactical reasoning.
In the past, whenever she had led the Empire’s troops into battle, their numbers and fighting skills had always outweighed and outclassed those of their enemy, and they had crushed entire cities by the sheer might of their advance.
This war was different. A lot of the men they faced were warriors the Immortals themselves had trained. Not only were they often more skilled than the soldiers of the alliance, they were also more numerous.
‘What do you propose we do?’ Bastian had said.
Aäron had dragged the pointed end of his sword in the sand and sketched out an outline of their surroundings. ‘The sand dunes to the north and south of the main battleground could provide cover for a surprise approach. If we position our forces on this hill by dawn,’ he indicated a line to the northwest of Eridug, ‘the enemy will not see how many of us are missing from their location on the plains. We can move half of our troops around under cover of darkness and place them here and here.’
He indicated the sand dunes on the drawing and frowned. ‘We need a way to carve up their army into more manageable divisions. I think we stand a chance of winning this war if we overpower them in small groups.’
Hosanna’s brow furrowed. ‘How though? We cannot exactly build walls to separate them.’
Mila stiffened as the idea suddenly bloomed in her mind.
‘Yes, we can,’ she breathed, turning to Jared. ‘Sand. You can use the sand to divide them.’ Her gaze shifted to Navia. ‘But we have to make sure they do not come at us all at once. So we need a way to stop their charge, if only for brief moments.’
Navia’s eyes widened. ‘You want me to restrain them with my powers?’
Mila nodded. Aäron looked around the circle of surprised faces before gazing at her.
He grinned. ‘That could work.’ His smile faded. ‘It does, however, mean you will have to hold the frontline with less men for the rest of this night.’
Tobias glanced at the other Immortals. ‘We can do that.’
Baruch nodded, a faint smile on his lips. ‘Indeed we can, cousin.’
Mila had studied the drawing in the sand with narrowed eyes. ‘We could do with something else. Something that will grant us the element of surprise even more.’
As she tore into the first of the enemy soldiers with her blades, Mila heard the distant roars rising from the north and south. Through a break in the whirling sand walls surrounding them, she caught a glimpse of Aäron charging down the sand dunes to her left on Buros, his own steed having perished two days past. Behind him came the hundreds of men who had lain hidden in the sand most of the night with some of the leaders of the alliance.
On her right, riding at the forefront of the southern wave of their troops, came Bastian, Megash, and the other governors.
In the sky above, Abu whirled, his armor glinting in the rays of the rising sun, his shriek telling her that their strategy was working.
Then his body disappeared in a brilliant light as the men and women she had left on the elevation behind raised their shields, the polished metal catching the golden light of the Heavenly orb as it emerged above the opposite horizon, turning its radiance into a deadly weapon that blinded the enemy’s troops bel
ow them while sparing those of the alliance.
The arrows came next, Jared and Aäron’s archers rising behind the soldiers with the shields and raining their deadly projectiles on the sightless army on the plains.
Kronos shielded his eyes and swore as he watched the sky darken with hundreds of whistling arrows through his parted fingers. He raised his shield and blocked several of the projectiles while dozens of men fell around him.
An arrow struck his right thigh, another his stallion’s neck. He ripped them out of their bleeding flesh with a vengeful cry and turned toward the enemy troops swooping down the sand dunes to the north. Fury filled his heart when he spotted a familiar figure riding a black stallion. He dug his thighs into his horse’s flanks and raced toward the man who had taken away the woman he once loved more than life itself.
Mila widened her stance to keep her balance while the ground shifted beneath her. Ripples danced across the plains as Jared moved the very earth, creating rises and dips where there were none, and fissures that widened to swallow the Empire’s men.
Meanwhile, the Seer ran through their enemy, forcing hundreds to their knees with her own unholy force while her blades carved through flesh and bone, her cold face filled with a light that seemed to burn from within, blood staining her hair, skin, and armor crimson. All around her, the alliance’s soldiers closed in for the kill.
Abu’s call suddenly came from above. Mila’s heart stuttered in her chest at the apprehension she detected in his cry. She followed his body with her eyes as he dove toward the land to the north. Then, between a gap in the walls of sand that still stood, she glimpsed the white stallion and saw Kronos close the distance that separated him from Aäron.
She moved, her feet carrying her across the ground before her mind completed the command, fear twisting her stomach.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
The broadsword hummed past his ear and sliced a sliver of hair from his temple. Aäron dropped beneath Kronos’s next swing, air leaving his throat in a grunt.
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