Battle of Illaria: Book Three of the Illaria Series

by Dyan Chick

  The tingle spread to my arms, and began to creep into my chest. The ward was cracking. "Positions, now! The ward is about to fall."

  Everybody ran to the barriers and walls we had constructed as hiding places in case of an attack. We knew with our smaller numbers we couldn't meet an army in a face to face fight. We had to be tricky. Hide and attack. Outlast.

  Pointing to one of the false walls we had constructed, I turned to Charles who hadn't left my side. "You need to wait over there. You won't want to be next to me while I'm calling magic."

  "I'm supposed to stay with you," he said.

  "You can't for this," I said. "I'll call for you if I need you."

  He hesitated, then nodded. I waited until he I saw him tucked behind a wall, then walked out to the open space between our barriers. Facing the ward that was about to fall, I focused on clearing my head. I needed to be able to channel my magic and keep the Darkness away. With the ward gone, it would be easier for the Darkness to find me. This wasn't practice with Master Flanders anymore, this was real.

  I took a deep breath and hoped that the order still stood for the king's guards and sorcerers to not kill me. I was the only one who would be visible since we had no other sorcerers and I needed to see my targets so I knew where to aim my magic.

  Bending my knees, I settled into my sorcerer stance and called to the energy inside me. Falling snowflakes stung my cheeks, giving me an idea. If I could make more snow, it might make it harder to see. Closing my eyes, I reached inside, feeling the icy cold of water rising in my veins. I pictured heavy, gray snow clouds filling the sky, then opening up and dumping huge, wet flakes. I called to the wind to move the flakes of snow in circles as it reached the ground.

  Opening my eyes, I looked up and saw that the snow was falling harder. I reached my hands up toward the sky and pulled at the water I could feel above me. Snow. More snow. The flakes started falling harder, faster. The wind kicked up. Snow.

  In a rush of energy coursing through me, I felt the ward break. I gasped as if I had been doused in cold water. That hadn't happened last time. Was I getting more sensitive to magic?

  My heart stopped. At the border of our fallen wards, stood several hundred men in matching armor. The flaming Phoenix bright against the falling snow. Behind them, I could make out figures in dark robes. Sorcerers. The snow swirled around them, making it so I couldn't tell how many there were or if the king was with them. I pushed my fear aside.

  Focus on the snow. In one last burst, I reached out for the clouds and pictured them tearing open and pouring snow on us. I stumbled as a gust of wind nearly knocked me over. In the blizzard I had created, I could no longer see the sorcerers behind the guards. My breathing was heavy and the approaching army seemed unstable. I'd overdone it. Scrambling away from the oncoming guards, I ran behind a wooden wall where two men with bows and arrows were waiting to ambush the guards.

  Collapsing onto the ground, I leaned my head against the wall.

  "Your highness," one of them knelt down next to me. "Are you all right?"

  My hair was soaking wet and clung to my face. I pushed it back then wiped the snow out of my eyes. "I'm fine. Just need to catch my breath."

  "You sure?" he asked, brow creased.

  I nodded. "Making snow was harder than I thought."

  "You started this storm?" he asked.

  "Yes." I closed my eyes and focused on slowing my breathing.

  "Remind me never to make you mad, highness," the man said.

  I smiled. I wasn't feeling very powerful at the moment, crumbled on the ground, breathing heavily. But I had made a blizzard and that was no small feat.

  In the swirling snow, I saw a man approaching us, as he drew nearer, I recognized the face of my new guard. Charles sat down next to me. "You okay?"

  I nodded. "Fine."

  Distant shouts filled the air as the battle began and I knew the guards were charging the camp. The men next to me stood and waited for the king's guards to reach our hiding place.

  Still weak, I pushed myself to standing. I wasn't sure what I had left in me. I'd never tried anything as big as a blizzard and then continued to fight before. My mind flashed back to my first encounters with the Reapers. Those first few times resulted in me passing out. I couldn't afford to do that here. Why did I give away my bow?

  "I need a weapon," I said to Charles. I didn't wait to see if he responded before taking off as fast as I could. It wasn't quite a run, but it was faster than walking. I charged on toward the arsenal, then paused. Were there any weapons left in the arsenal? Probably not. Changing direction, I headed toward my quarters. I should have at least a dagger in there and that would be better than nothing while I waited for my strength to return.

  Running was proving more difficult than I thought it would be. The fancy dress I had worn to Gallia was weighing me down. Especially as it got wetter and wetter in the snow. My feet slid over the grass and I nearly went crashing into the ground. How am I supposed to fight like this?

  I darted into my tent and pulled off the top layers of the dress.

  Charles stepped into my quarters, and I spun around to face him, piles of fabric in my hand.

  His face reddened and he turned away. "I'm sorry, your highness. I didn't realize."

  "I can't fight in this stuff. You can turn around. There's still five layers of fabric covering me." I threw the overdress to the ground and looked around the tent, trying to remember where I had stored the daggers I'd been given.

  "I never thought about how hard it would be to fight in a dress," Charles said.

  "Remind me not to wear them again until we defeat the king." I shivered. Since I stopped moving, the cold had set in. Rummaging through a chest in the corner of my tent, I found a pair of daggers that Saffron had given me. I hadn't used them since we traveled to Greenville. Weapons in hand, I looked over to Charles. "You ready?"

  35

  Etta

  As we neared the edge of camp, the sounds of battle grew. The smell of burning and death assaulted my senses. My whole body tensed as I tried to prepare myself for what I would see.

  Ahead of us, I could see that our men had abandoned the false walls we'd built and joined the fray beyond the original wards of the camp. I walked around a few bodies of guards and crimson stained snow. My throat tightened as I turned away from the body of one of our own. It looked like at least some of the king's guard had made it past our perimeter and into the camp.

  Behind me, I noticed a trail of footprints that had erased the snow, forming a pathway through the heart of the Raven camp. It was wide enough to have been made by a large group. My heart fell as my fears were confirmed, the guards had made it through the camp. I hoped that the non-fighters had found a way to escape the onslaught. We'd been working on finding evacuation locations for the last few weeks and had settled on an abandoned castle not far from here. It hadn't been fully protected yet, but it would do if we had found enough sorcerers to teleport people there. I hoped Madame Lyndsey had found her friends who promised to help us. For a moment, my vision blurred as the crushing weight of all the things I couldn't control came crashing down on me.

  "Are you alright, your highness?" Charles' voice brought me back to the present. I couldn't do it all. As Ashton had reminded me, I had to be willing to let people help me. Madame Lyndsey had her job and she would take care of them. I had to do mine.

  "I'm fine, let's keep going."

  "Are you sure?" Charles grabbed my shoulder. "You said yourself that you don't have any magic left."

  "They don't know that." I hoped the king's orders to keep me alive still stood. "Besides, if I have to use it, you can carry me to safety." Before he could argue with me, I took off at a run toward the fire and the cries of battle.

  As we approached, I slowed down. We stopped behind a freestanding wall, and looked around the edge.

  Hundreds of people were engaged in the fight as it came into view. Fires burned on the wooden walls around us, the snow not en
ough to quench them. Smoke rose from the battlefield, which was no longer white, but rather a muddy span of land outside the fallen wards of the camp. Ravens and guards grappled with swords up close, their mud-covered bodies making it difficult to see which was which from a distance.

  Knowing the greatest threat would come from any sorcerers who were going unchallenged, I searched in the chaos for the familiar black robes, pausing to assess each one when I came across it.

  The first one I found was fighting someone with a sword. It took me a moment to realize the mud-covered figure was Saffron. She swung at the sorcerer who seemed to dissolve and then rematerialized inches away after every attack. She ducked when he threw a fireball at her. They were surprisingly evenly matched.

  Then, I found two more black-robed figures. They were both attacking a single person. The hair rose on the back of my neck. Two sorcerers fighting the same opponent? I narrowed my eyes to see who the target was. Navy blue robes and long, loose gray hair told me this was Master Flanders. He was back. Where were the other sorcerers on our side? Were they fighting somewhere else or had they not come?

  After a quick assessment of the rest of the scene, I don't find any other sorcerers. It was time to help.

  I ducked back behind the wall. "Here's the plan. See if you can sneak up behind the sorcerer that Saffron is fighting. Take him out. I'm going to help Master Flanders."

  "Are you sure?" he asked.

  "Quit asking me that. I'm fine." I gripped the handle of a dagger and headed out at a run, not looking back.

  Master Flanders was launching spell after spell at his two attackers. Most of them seemed to be invisible and caused the other sorcerers to stop in their tracks or cry out in pain. How long has he been at this?

  He looked up at me. "Stay there," he shouted. "Help me. Use your power to support mine."

  I stopped and grounded myself in my stance. I knew I was weak and that there wasn't much power left inside me. Hoping that the few minutes had been enough to give me something to work with I pulled on my magic and directed it out through my outstretched fingers, toward Master Flanders.

  A sudden gust of wind swept past me, picking up dirt and snow, forming a funnel in the air. It swallowed the two sorcerers. They screamed and their feet lifted off of the ground. Master Flanders took a few steps away, his robes and hair whipping around him. He made a sweeping gesture with his arms and the funnel traveled away, through the snow until I lost sight of it. The sorcerers were gone.

  I dropped to my knees, breathing hard. Spots danced across my vision. I knew that was all I had left. There would be no more magic from me today unless I was willing to lose consciousness.

  My body swayed and my eyes went in and out of focus as I searched for the other fight. Where were Saffron and Charles? The only other person I could see was Master Flanders.

  Looking behind me, I realize the other fight had moved right behind me and I had a front row seat to its conclusion. The sorcerer they were fighting let out a grunt as Charles shoved his dagger into his ribs. The black robed man let out a gurgling cry and clutched at the dagger. Saffron aimed the point of her sword at his chest and thrust it inside of him. Blood spilled out of the man's mouth and his eyes rolled into the back of his head. Saffron pulled the blade out and pushed the man over with the heel of her boot. He fell backward into the snow, blood oozing out around him.

  My shoulders dropped in relief. My friends were safe, the king's sorcerers were dead or gone. Saffron dropped to her knees next to me and wrapped her arm around me. "Thank the gods you're safe."

  "You've used too much magic, haven't you?" Master Flanders said.

  "I'm sure I'll be fine," I said. "Where is everybody else?"

  "Other side of camp." Master Flanders' mouth pressed into a tight line.

  Other side? The moment of relief was over and my whole body tensed. We staged our attack to keep the battle away from those who couldn't fight. "They went after the children?"

  Saffron stood and pulled me up. "You know how the king works. He seemed to know exactly where we hid them."

  My jaw clenched. "Someone told him, you mean."

  "Probably," Saffron agreed.

  "We have to help them." I took a few steps and nearly fell to the ground.

  "You're done. You need to rest," Master Flanders said. "Charles, Saffron, go help the others." He wrapped an arm around my waist. "I've got a tonic in my tent. It'll help."

  "I need to help," I repeated.

  Saffron lifted my chin in her hand. "Look at me. You are no good to any of us if you're dead. Go take your medicine and then come back and fight."

  Letting out a sigh, I nodded.

  Master Flanders' guided me to his tent, then had me sit on the bedroll while he dug through a wooden chest. After a while, he retrieved something, then closed the chest. Holding a small vial, about the size of my pinky finger, he walked over to me.

  "Here." Master Flanders passed me the vial.

  I took the bottle and squinted at it, trying to determine what made up the swirling, silver liquid. The contents seemed to pulse and move of their own freewill. Last time I had drunk from a vial, I had sent myself to the underworld. While I didn't think Master Flanders was trying to harm me, I still found myself facing a tangle of nerves in the pit of my stomach. "What is it?"

  "Essence of the Jubilee flower and dragon scale," he said. "It's potent stuff. Only used for emergencies."

  I'd never heard of a Jubilee flower and had no idea that somebody still had the means to get a hold of dragon scales. "It'll help me recover faster?"

  "It will. Go ahead and drink," Master Flanders said.

  I pulled the cork stopper out of the bottle and took a sip. My face puckered and I gagged. It was like eating the most sour lemon in the world.

  "All of it at once." Master Flanders lifted his hand in a drinking motion.

  I swallowed back the overwhelming flavor. It lingered in my mouth as I stared at the shimming liquid remaining in the vial. Just drink it. Lifting the vial to my lips, I tipped the entire contents into my mouth. It took all of my willpower not to spit it back out. Forcing myself to swallow, eyes watering from the intensity of the flavor. I coughed and handed the empty vial back to Master Flanders.

  "Feel better?" he asked.

  I pushed my hair away from my face and looked around the room. Nothing was spinning. My vision was clear. My head wasn't hurting. Standing, I reached inside, calling to the ice that flowed deep within. In seconds, my body hummed with power as the cold flooded my veins. I pushed the ice out of my palms, making blue sparks of cold rise to my hands. Closing my hands, I let the power recede. "How is that possible?"

  "I told you, it's potent stuff." Master Flanders dropped the empty vial back into his trunk and closed the lid. "Ready to get back to it?"

  The battle wasn't hard to find if you just followed the sound of angry people and fear. The edge of camp was dotted with bodies that had a fine layer of snow covering them. It wasn't possible to tell which side they belonged to but based on how few Ravens I saw, I guessed too many of them were ours.

  Master Flanders stopped, eyes on the scene in front of us. "We're losing," he said.

  A lump rose in my throat. Our people were dying. We weren't ready for this kind of a fight. "We don't have a choice," I said. "We have to keep fighting. We'll never get everybody out in time."

  "We can get you out," Master Flanders said.

  "No," I gripped the dagger in my hand. "I fight with them."

  I charged into the fray, searching for somebody to help. Movement from behind me had me spinning around just in time to see a guard launching at me with a sword. I ducked, avoiding the blow, then righted myself. My upper lip curled in disgust as I faced off against my attacker, a stocky member of the king's guard with blood-streaked blonde hair. He lunged toward me and without stopping to think about what I was doing, I called on my magic and sent a rush of wind toward him. He stumbled backward. Pulling the dagger from my belt, I approached
, blade held in front of me.

  His eyes narrowed on me as he ran toward me. With a flick of my hand, I knocked his sword from his grip. He turned to chase after it and I shoved my blade into his stomach, removing it quickly. Backing up a few paces I watched him stumble. He let out a groan and pressed his hands on the gushing wound.

  An arrow flew past me and landed in the man's throat. He coughed, spitting blood, then fell face first to the snow. I turned to see who had shot the arrow and Yancey rushed to my side.

  "Are you hurt, your highness?" He grabbed my arm and pulled me away from the battle.

  I shook my head. "You used up all the enchanted arrows?"

  He turned to show me the quiver I'd given him. It had three arrows left. "I've been saving them. Picking up the arrows the king's guards sent our way during the initial attack."

  Smart.

  "Let's get you somewhere safe, your highness, you shouldn't be out here," Yancey tugged at my arm.

  I pulled away from him. "No, we don't quit."

  He nodded and lifted my bow toward me. I waved it away. "You really as good a shot as you say?" I asked.

  Gripping the bow with both hands he smiled. "Better. What do you have in mind?"

  "I'm going to move our people away, leaving just the guards. You hit them with one of the enchanted arrows. We should be able to take out several at once." I swallowed, not sure how I was going to make it happen.

  "This way." I ran for a small hill that would give us a better view of the battle. Yancey followed behind me. He nocked an arrow in the bow and turned his gaze at the battle in front of us.

  Taking a deep breath, I focused on the people in front of me. A tangle of bodies collided with one another. People slid across the wet grass and the sound of steel against steel rang through the air. I locked my gaze on a group of six guards who had surrounded three Ravens. They were fighting bravely, but it was clear they wouldn't be able to hold out much longer. Clearing my mind, I imagined my energy filling each of the three Ravens, pulling them away. Inside, I focused on the sensation I felt when I teleported. Like the pin of a lock fitting into place, I felt my power grasp them. I pulled, moving my arms in a wide sweeping motion.