“You shouldn’t be here at all,” Elade scolded him between labored breaths. “You should be in the command tower overseeing the battle.”
“A simple ‘thanks’ wouldn’t hurt. It was about to eat you, you know.”
“I had everything under control,” she muttered, flashing him a tight smile. “But thanks anyway.”
He grunted. “I think you dropped this, by the way,” he said, holding out her sword. “I figured you might still have a use for it before the day is over.”
Elade took the weapon, her smile widening. “I certainly hope so. What’s the situation on the upper level?”
Darius gestured upwards. “The priests erected the barrier, but the Crell managed to slip a few squads into the city. They’re attacking the towers, and I’d bet a small fortune they have Breakers with them.”
She grimaced. “I’ll take care of them. Which tower is closer?”
“From what I could tell, the path to the eastern tower is mostly clear. We should head that way first.”
Elade thought about arguing with him. She still wanted him back in the central tower with a throng of soldiers protecting him…but if there were Breakers in the city, they didn’t have time to stand around arguing. Not yet, at least.
“All right,” she said, twirling her sword in her hand. “Let’s move.”
Chapter Seventeen
“Celenest is the treasure. Amberwood is the key.”
—Berec Droll, Citulan Commander, shortly before the sacking of Amberwood in 1711 A.G.
“Incoming report from one of our low-flying manticore scouts, sir,” Lieutenant Mirrel announced. “The groll on the lower level have been killed or contained…and our siege dragon is confirmed dead.”
Tenel nodded calmly. “What about the paladin?”
“No confirmation one way or another. Visibility is exceedingly poor even without the barrier.”
“She’s alive,” Horsch grumbled. “We both know that.”
“Probably,” Tenel admitted, struggling to keep the frustration out of his voice. “What’s the status of our Breakers?”
“Both teams have encountered stiffer resistance than we expected,” Mirrel told him. “The Solarians have rallied quickly.”
Horsch hissed between his teeth and leaned his palms onto the table. “They’re running out of time. If the elf catches up with them, she’ll—”
“We are all aware of the situation, Colonel,” Tenel interrupted, shooting his friend an admonishing glare. The battle was far from over, and there was no reason to panic just yet. “Remind our men that the hourglass is draining. They need to press now, otherwise…”
Mirrel frowned as he trailed off. “Sir?”
Tenel stared down at the glowing projection, his mind racing. It had become virtually useless for anything other than tracking their Breaker squads at this point. Without Imperators on the ground, they had no way of knowing what was happening at the center of the fort…or rather, they had only one way.
“Order one of the manticores to perform a scouting flyby here,” he ordered, pointing at the streets near the waterway. “I want to know which way the paladin is heading.”
Horsch turned and cocked an eyebrow. “We don’t have any available men to intercept her, if that’s what you’re thinking.”
“It’s not,” Tenel said. “Lieutenant?”
“The Alliance griffons have engaged most of our riders,” Mirrel said. Her brow and cheeks kept twitching as she struggled to keep up with the flood of information. “Breaking off may be dangerous.”
“I know, but we don’t have a choice. Relay the orders.”
“Yes, sir. Standby.”
The Aetheric projection flickered as one of the half-dozen manticores engaging the griffons abruptly broke off and banked across the fortress. Two of the Solarian riders pursued, but their mounts weren’t nearly as fast or maneuverable. The manticore soon pulled clear, and Tenel hoped the rider would be able to see something useful despite the rising smoke…
“There!” Horsch said, pointing. A small squad of shadowy figures was moving away from the dragon, though the mind’s eye view from the manticore rider wasn’t precise enough to discern any details. “That must be her.”
“They’re heading for the western tower,” Tenel said, grinning. “Order three men from the western team to slip away and join the squad in the east. Once they arrive, they’re to press as hard as possible. They have to get inside that tower.”
Horsch turned and studied his profile. “You’re throwing the rest of that squad to the wolves. They won’t stand a chance against the Solarians, let alone the paladin.”
“If they don’t get into the tower, they’re all dead anyway,” Tenel pointed out. “They knew the risks before this assignment, and at this point there’s no chance we can cripple both groups of priests. We’ll have to settle for taking down the eastern batch and hope it’s enough to weaken the barrier.”
Horsch pivoted back to the projection and pursed his lips. “Then we should call off the strafing runs and have every available manticore to try and time a strike to coincide with the collapse of the tower. With luck, it will be enough to shatter the barrier.”
“Agreed,” Tenel said, clapping the other man on the back. “Relay the orders, Lieutenant. And make sure the dragons are with them. The instant the barrier falters, they’ll drop their troop carriers right here in the courtyard. Even if the priests hold, we’ll give them a second wave to deal with.”
“Understood, sir,” Mirrel said. “Relaying your orders now.”
Tenel leaned forward and narrowed his eyes in thought. “Make certain they focus their strike upon the western tower. If we time it right, we might destroy the whole bloody thing.”
“Including our own men?” Horsch asked.
“In all likelihood, that team will be dead or crippled by then anyway,” Tenel said, his voice grave but hard. Unlike the previous High Command, he cared for the men and women under his command; he had no desire to needlessly throw away their lives. But this was still a war, and tactical losses were unavoidable. “The Solarians, on the other hand, will probably be clustered right beneath our assault—including our annoying paladin friend.”
Horsch grunted. “With our luck, she’ll be the only survivor.”
“Even if that’s true, Amberwood will still be ours…and then we’ll have a fresh prize to offer the High Sovereign,” Tenel said, sitting back down in his chair. “Besides, no one can escape justice forever. Not even a Knight of the Last Dawn.”
***
“It looks like the Crell haven’t breached the tower yet, thank Sol,” Darius breathed as he crouched down behind a stone wall near the stairs at the base of the eastern tower. The level above roared with the sounds of battle—the click of firing crossbows, the clatter of clashing steel, and of course the crackling hiss of Aetheric flame and lightning. “We should be able to flank them.”
“I can flank them,” Elade said, “but you and your men should get back to the central tower. It’s far too risky for you to be out here.”
“She’s right, General,” one of the other Solarian soldiers put in. “You shouldn’t be—”
“We’ve been over this, and I’m not discussing it again,” Darius interrupted firmly. He glared at his men for a moment to let the point sink in, then tilted back to Elade. “You don’t always have to fight alone, you know. Even paladins can use help now and then.”
She stared back at him, her expression unreadable. “Fine. Just make sure you stay behind me.”
He nodded. “So what’s the plan?”
“The plan is to stay behind me,” she repeated, smiling thinly. She unsheathed her sword and leaned backwards into a nearby pocket of shadow…and then vanished.
“What in the Void?” the closest soldier stammered. “Where did she—?”
A series of stunned screams echoed down the staircase, and Darius peeked up over the edge just in time to see one of the Crell soldiers toppling down to
wards them, blood spraying from a mangled stump that had once been his arm. On the ledge above, her shield glittering like a beacon as she carved her way through the imperial lines, was Elade.
“You heard the woman,” Darius whispered. “Stay right behind her.”
He drew his own sword and charged up the stairs. But the battle, it turned out, was already over. The Alliance soldiers inside and below the tower had held their ground; the bodies of a half dozen Crell soldiers littered the area in front of the entryway, and Elade dispatched the rest in a deadly blur of magic and steel. Darius and his escort never even had to lift their weapons.
“Lieutenant: report!” Darius called out as he approached the defenders. They were all clearly shocked to see him, but their priest commander quickly regained his composure and stepped forward.
“They didn’t touch the priests, sir,” the man said, “and the barrier is still holding.”
“I have eyes, Lieutenant,” Darius growled. “What’s the status of the other tower?”
The priest closed his eyes for a moment. “They’re under heavy attack, sir. The Crell have breached the doorway, and…”
“And what?” Elade asked as she stepped in closer. Her brow glistened with sweat, and she cleaned her bloody sword off on her cloak.
The priest blinked and swallowed heavily. “I’ve lost contact with the other priest, sir. The Breakers must have—”
He had no sooner spoken the words when the shimmering barrier above them began to flicker like a dying candle. Darius swore under his breath, but mercifully the shield appeared to hold…at least for now.
“We need to get the rest of our griffons in the air,” he rasped. “Relay the orders, and tell Major Lennox that we need every remaining soldier to form up and take back the western tower. We have to deal with those Breakers.”
“I’ll take care of them,” Elade said. “You should stay here and—”
“Incoming,” the priest screamed, pointing up to the barrier.
Darius craned his neck upwards just in time to see a storm of fireballs raining down towards them. They splattered against and then pierced through the barrier, and a curtain of flame singed across his face as a dragon streaked past—
And then something slammed hard into his chest, and he tumbled uncontrollably down the nearby staircase. The air left his lungs as he crashed hard against the rough stone edges, and for a split second the heat was so intense he feared his flesh would melt right off his bones. But then the sensation passed in a blur of stone and steel, and all he could think about was the agony stabbing into his gut.
“General,” an accented female voice whispered into his ear. “Darius…can you hear me?”
His eyes belatedly popped open, and it was only then he realized they had snapped shut in the first place. He was lying on his back at the bottom of the staircase, and looking down at him was a familiar gray-skinned woman.
“I can’t…” he managed.
“Just hold still,” Elade told him. He was vaguely aware of a sudden warmth in his chest, and he could feel her applying pressure to his breastplate. “You’ve cracked two ribs, and you might have punctured a lung. I’ve done what I can, but you need to get to your feet.”
Darius blinked in confusion as she struggled to help him lean up. He must have blacked out at some point. “What happened?”
“The tower is gone,” she replied gravely. “The Crell have dropped reinforcements in the city, and I doubt your men will be able to hold them back for long. You need to rally what soldiers you can and evacuate through the north gate.”
“Evacuate?” he gasped. “We can’t…”
His voice trailed off as he glanced past her shoulder to the tower above...or rather, what was left of it. Barely half the structure remained intact, and the entire area was littered with smoldering rubble and debris. He didn’t see any of the other soldiers, either—they must have been annihilated in the blast.
Darius swallowed heavily as the acrid stench of death finally flooded his nostrils. His mind flashed back to Garos and the surprise Crell attack upon their defenses. He should have died there with the rest of his command staff, it was only through sheer luck and the will of Sol that he’d managed to survive. But here…
“You saved my life,” he whispered.
“You can thank me later,” Elade told him, grabbing his arm and hoisting him to his feet. “Right now, you’re the only one who can rally the men and get them out of here.”
Darius coughed as he braced himself against a nearby slab of stone. Standing made it more difficult to breathe, and the air continued to burn in his lungs. But it wasn’t because of the pain in his chest—it was because Elade was right.
Amberwood was lost. For the first time since the foundation of the Alliance, Celenest itself would be under siege by an enemy army. Morale would crumble, desertions would be commonplace, and they would be forced to leave the southern provinces at the mercy of the Sovereigns. Solaria would collapse, and the rest of Torsia would surely follow. All while he had been in command.
“You have to get out of here, Darius,” Elade told him. “Go. Now!”
He coughed again and forced his mind back into the present. “You should come with me,” he said. “I’ll need your help to make sure we protect as many civilians as possible.”
“I’ll buy you as much time as I can, but I have to stop their Breakers before they can do any more damage. Good luck.”
She started to sprint away, but Darius reached out and grabbed her arm. “You can’t go out there alone,” he said, flinching as a trio of manticores flew past overhead. “If they’ve dropped other carriers, there could be dozens of groll out there, and all my men are—”
“I will hold them off,” Elade promised. “Now go. Please.”
There were a dozen things he wanted to say to her in that moment. More than anything, he wanted to plead with her to flee with him to Celenest. But one look in her eyes convinced him not to waste his breath. She wasn’t a soldier he could order around, nor was she just a friend he could persuade to come with him.
She was a Knight of the Last Dawn, and she would do what needed to be done. No matter the cost.
“Goodbye,” Elade whispered. She squeezed his hand one last time, then turned and sprinted away.
Darius stood in place until she disappeared into the rising smoke. “Goodbye.”
Clenching a hand around his aching ribs, he lumbered back towards the command tower.
***
The western tower was a graveyard by the time Elade arrived. The burnt, mangled corpses of dozens of Solarian soldiers littered the entryway, and she reflexively pulled her cloak up over her nose to filter the awful stench. The tower’s interior wasn’t any better off; the priests who had been maintaining the barrier had all been systematically broken and then carved to pieces. Bloody viscera stained the floor and walls, and Elade struggled not to be sick as she strode back outside.
The Crell strike team had apparently decided to pull back to the fort’s lower level and regroup with their incoming reinforcements. It was a smart if unexpected bit of caution on their part. With the barrier down and the Solarian priests dead, Amberwood was already lost. The Crell could take as long as they wanted to march across the bridge and storm the upper city en masse. The aerial battle continued overhead, but at this point the surviving griffons were just trying to draw fire away from the civilians and soldiers retreating out the north gate. A merciful enemy commander would let them flee uncontested…but given the reputation of the Sovereigns, Elade wasn’t about to hold her breath.
Lunging over the bodies, she dashed off towards the easternmost bridge spanning the river. Between the siege dragon and the continued aerial assault, the other two archways had been destroyed, which at the moment actually worked to her benefit. When the Crell finally decided to make their final push, she could bottleneck them here. At least for a little while.
Drawing her sword and re-summoning her shield, Elade closed her eyes an
d took in a deep, calming breath. She should have been terrified by the prospect of inevitable death, but for some reason she felt completely at peace. At least if she died here, it would be for a worthy purpose. And just as importantly, she would deny Highlord Alric and the rest of the Dawn Conclave the pleasure of their continued witch hunt…
“It appears Highlord Dracian was right after all,” a soft voice said from behind her. “You really are a complicated woman, far more so than Alric or the Last Dawn believes.”
Elade glanced back over her shoulder. Approaching from the shadows on the opposite side of the bridge, the moonlight glinting strangely off her dark eyes, was Sabine. “What are you doing here? You should be fleeing the city with the other refugees.”
“I came to find you,” the girl replied. She had cleaned up since their last meeting, and she had shed her baggy Crell scout armor for a simple brown dress. “I didn’t expect the Crell to act this quickly, and I’m pleased to see that you are all right.”
A cold chill tickled its way down Elade’s spine. The woman standing in front of her was not the meek Izarian conscript she had rescued at Lanesk. Sabine’s voice, her posture, her stance…they were all different. If Elade didn’t know better, she would have assumed the girl was possessed.
“Alric insists that your mere presence in the Citadel corrupted several of the younger knights, and he blames you for Dracian’s fall,” Sabine went on. “In his mind, you are a demon-loving apostate. He fears that you will share the Dawn’s channeling techniques with the Crell and the vaeyn and anyone else who asks.”
“What are you talking about? How do you know about Alric?”
“If he could see you now, willingly throwing away your life to defend a bunch of hapless Solarian peasants, perhaps he would understand that the world is not as black and white as he would like to believe,” Sabine said, ignoring the comment. “But I suppose it doesn’t really matter. You are still Unbound, and the Watchers will never allow you to roam the world freely.”
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