But if I didn’t release them soon, they others would.
We were still fifteen feet up. It would have to do. I released my hold on the air, and with cries of pain the four of us crashed into the ground. I landed hard, and I felt a soft, wet, sickening crunch in my shoulder. Waves of pain washed over me, and I puked in the grass.
I got up woozily, unable to trust my legs for a minute. My right arm lanced with pain again, and I cradled it with my left. Blade, Samuel and Darren slowly rose up beside me.
“What was that?” Blade asked, still sucking in deep gulps of air.
“A little trick I thought of,” I said, my stomach still flip-flopping.
“How long between when you thought it up and when you just used it?” he said through gritted teeth.
“Probably fifteen seconds.”
Blade groaned. “A little warning next time. Like, any warning. Just not none.”
“Your arm, my Lord,” said Darren, concerned.
I shrugged. That turned out to be a terrible idea, because it jarred my shoulder. It was all I could do to grit my teeth and not cry out or lose my lunch again. “I’m all right, Darren,” I managed to gasp out.
I studied the battlefield. The Runegard were fighting on either side of the barrier gate, holding back the Shadows as best they could. Raven wove through the sky above them, striking with bolts of electricity wherever the fighting was thickest. We needed to get out of here, now.
“Let’s get moving,” I said. “Come on.”
We staggered in the direction of the city, keeping a wary eye. I spotted a Runegard officer from the markings on the shoulder plates of her armor. She was focused on the fighting before her, directing some of her men to move to the side and try and flank the Shadows. I grabbed her shoulder plate and she spun around, shocked to see me standing before her.
“We’re away from the gate,” I said. “You need to get your men back to the city, pronto.”
“As you command, my Lord.” She turned back to the men battling before us. “Runegard!” she shouted. “Retreat to the city walls!”
Slowly the men began backing away. The two forces that had split to protect either side of the barrier gate drew together, forming a solid block of men and armor that shielded us from the Shadows that surged forward with grasping hands and stabbing spears.
I helped where I could, dashing crows out of the sky as they swooped low to strike at the Runegard, but the pain of my arm kept distracting me, weakening my magic. Raven was still in the air, and she and Ella were wreaking a terrible toll on the Shadows, but they had to steer clear of the hellions or risk being swept from the sky. Blade summoned flames to bat the creatures of Chaos back.
But we were moving too slowly. It was at least two miles to the city walls, and at the rate we were advancing it would take us forever to reach them. The Shadows were pressing forward more and more insistently, and they were starting to flow around the edges of the Runegard, threatening to surround us.
“Blade!” I said. His head snapped to me, a fireball dying where he’d been summoning it in midair. “This is taking too long! We’ll never make it to the walls!”
He shrugged. “Don’t know what to tell you, dude. Unless you can fly us all out of here, we’re kind of stuck.”
I gave a frustrated growl as another lance of pain shot through my arm. “Maybe Raven should start flying soldiers out of here.”
Blade shook his head. “There’s hundreds of them. It would take her longer to pull everyone back than it would take us to walk. And every man she’d take away would be one less sword on the line. The rest of them would die even quicker.”
“We’re all going to die unless we think of something,” I said.
The ground rumbled, and a gout of liquid rock sprang up among the Shadows, causing their center to sink into the ground only to be enveloped by a tidal wave of rolling, crashing, rushing earth.
“What the — ” I began.
“Why does it seem like I’m saving your butt every other day?”
I whirled at the sound of Sarah’s voice to find her sitting astride a horse a few yards away. Beside her were Miles, Tess and, to my shock and delight, Greystone. But my jubilation died at the look on Greystone’s face. He was as grim as I’d ever seen him, staring at the Shadows with utter hatred on his face.
“Took you long enough!” said Blade.
“Dude, Sarah’s got a point. This is major deja vu,” said Miles.
“All right, enough chit-chat,” said Sarah. “Everyone knows what to do by now. Do it.”
And we did. I was there every time arrows arced across the battlefield toward us, blocking them with Air. Miles soaked the ground at the Shadows feet, miring them up to their knees in mud and muck. Blade and Raven were everywhere, roasting and frying Shadows in droves. When hellions neared the lines, we concentrated everything we had on them until they finally went down, thrashing and screaming.
Step by painful step, we fought our way back toward the gates of the city. And halfway there, the Shadows’ horns sounded out. Slowly they withdrew from the fighting, backing up step by step just as we were. Once they were clear of our lines, they turned and marched away. Their path back toward the army still approaching in the distance ran over scores of bodies and hundreds of black, empty suits of armor.
“All right, back to the gates!” called Sarah. Beside her, Greystone spat on the ground and wheeled his horse around.
Cara galloped up to me on her horse. “Come, little Lord,” she said. “You are injured. Ride with me.”
She held out her left arm. I took it gratefully and allowed her to fling me up onto the saddle behind her, which she did as easily as if I was a child. I wrapped my good arm around her waist while I tried to cushion the other as much as possible. She rode gently, which I was grateful for. I leaned my head against her back, suddenly so weary that I almost couldn’t lift it again.
“Thank you,” I murmured.
“It is nothing, my Lord,” she said easily. “I only wish we had arrived sooner.”
“I was actually kind of praying,” I said. “Not something I do very often. But thank you, too.”
Cara chuckled.
We rode in through the gates, the others following on foot and the Runegard filing in behind them. As the last soldiers entered, the wide gate slowly swung shut behind them. I remembered what Greystone had told us about the city gates when we’d first come here. They were wide and weak, designed for ease of trade and not for defense. I had the feeling we’d come to regret that in the coming days. An iron portcullis rolled down in front of it. At least we still had that.
My attention was distracted by smoke rising from the wall above the gate. I looked up to see the faint wisps curling around each other as they floated up into the darkening sky.
“Who is that up there?” I asked, becoming afraid of the answer even as the words left my mouth. “Did Chaos already make it this far in?”
“In a sense,” said Cara reluctantly. “There was an infestation within the walls. It was undetected and passed by the barrier unseen concealed in amber.”
Amber. Why did that ring a bell? I thought of all the places I’d seen amber. There were precious few. In fact, I couldn’t think of any right now. Except that wasn’t true, I had seen amber before, it was —
“The amulet?” I said. “The queen’s amulet?”
I felt Cara’s hesitance, but after a moment she nodded. “Indeed. It was concealed within. Terrence cast a spell to shatter the amulet, and the Chaos contained within escaped into the city.”
“That’s why the barrier went down,” I said, suddenly understanding.
“It is,” she confirmed.
“So did the Queen die?” I asked. I didn’t mean to be morbid, but it stood to reason that if she was wearing the amulet, it would have infested her body.
Plus, as much as I hated to admit it, a tiny part of me was imagining how much easier life would be without Queen Elanor in it.
But
Cara shook her head. “No,” she said, her voice tinged with sorrow. “The darkness found another.”
A pit of dread formed in my stomach. “No…not…not Nestor.”
“The King fell,” Cara said quietly.
Suddenly I had to get off the horse. I slid to the side. Cara caught me before I fell all the way off, but the jar of my landing still caused me to cry out with pain.
Cara leapt off her horse, and suddenly Darren was there as well. Together they tried to support me.
“We must get you to the healers, my Lord,” murmured Darren. “They will want to take a look at that arm.”
I shrugged him off. I went to the door leading to the left tower and climbed slowly up the stairs. Darren and Cara trailed after me. Both of them remained silent.
I stepped through the door back into the open air to see the blackened body laying before me. Suddenly timid, I stopped for a moment. But I gathered my courage and went on.
The white and brown robes were charred with the fury of the flames that had consumed him. The limbs were twisted and black. The face was unrecognizable. But a scorched crown lay near the top of the corpse’s head.
The body was burned. Blade hadn’t been here. Unless they’d done it with a torch, there was only one person who could have brought the flames to bear.
I looked down at him. Greystone still sat across his horse, neglecting to dismount with the others. His piercing blue eyes met mine, unblinking but not unmoved. They shone a bit brighter for a moment until at last he turned away.
I sat on the floor by Nestor’s head. I cradled my forehead with my left hand. I didn’t realize I was crying until I heard the clank of armor beside me, and felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked up, expecting to see Darren’s face — but it wasn’t Darren. It was Cara.
“I am sorry, my Lord,” she said quietly.
“He was nice to me,” I said. “Right from the first time he saw me. He was really…just, really nice to me. He thought I was funny.”
“He was quite amused by you, my Lord,” she said. “And he was kind. The kindest king I have ever known, though I have not known many. He was not as wise as could have been wished. But I enjoyed speaking with him, as you did. And for all his faults, I am glad to have known him.”
“Shouldn’t you be a little more respectful?” I asked, momentarily shocked from my tears. “I mean…he’s dead.”
Cara nodded. “One of the last Realm Keepers told me that on True Earth you do not do this. Here, we speak honestly of loved ones who have passed. If we were glad to have known them, we speak freely of their faults in the knowledge that the good outweighed them.”
“That’s actually kind of refreshing,” I said, surprised. The last of my tears dried on my cheeks. “I like it.”
My nose was running. I rubbed it away with my sleeve. It was probably some kind of sacrilege to defile the robes of a Realm Keeper that way, but just then I didn’t care.
I heard footsteps and looked up to find the others on the wall with us. They stared at the body with a mixture of fascination and horror. The faces of the Runegard were impassive, but I could see the turmoil in their eyes.
I got to my feet and went to the battlements. There was a pole there with a flag of Morrowdust hanging from it: the brown hawk with a red tail on a background of white. I tried to grab it from the pole, but with only one arm it was hard.
“Here, my Lord, let me.” Cara stepped up to pull the flag from its pole. She handed it to me delicately, handling it with reverence.
I went to Nestor’s body. I threw the flag out, draping it over his body as best I could with my left hand. Darren came to help me. We covered him, and the last smoke drifting up from his body vanished from sight.
“Good-bye, King Nestor,” I said. “Thank you for what you did for us. Thank you for trying to help. And thank you for being a friendly face when we were still strangers.”
Sarah came around to stand beside me. Her eyes were moist. She put an arm around my shoulders.
Darren went to the wall. There was another pole there with the flag of the Runegard on it: a silver-mailed fist clutching a sword on a red background. He tugged it from the pole and came to drape it across the flag of Morrowdust.
“Farewell, o King,” said Cara. “Often our paths crossed in council and purpose, but you behaved nobly and honorably in all dealings I had with you. And you risked much to guard the lives of the Realm Keepers, who I am sworn to protect. For that, I thank you.”
We were all silent for a moment. Then the moment passed, and I turned to look out from the wall.
The Shadows were amassing in the fields before us. Far on the other side of their force, I saw soldiers armored in gleaming steel instead of blackened metal. Humans, I realized. They were setting up tents and lighting fires. And some of them were riding horses and wagons. The wagons had great constructs of wood. Some of the wagons were already unloaded, and the men were raising them up, beginning to lash them together.
“What are those?” asked Miles.
I spoke without waiting for one of the Runegard. “Siege towers,” I said. “They’ll run them up against the walls and drop platforms that will let them run right onto the wall.”
“Fantastic,” said Blade. “Glad to know the worst is yet to come.”
I nodded. “It certainly is.”
“You should all rest,” Greystone said. “Especially your men, Captain Gaskill. Terrence will not strike again tonight. His great gambit has been played, and now he believes he has time to wait. He will strike tomorrow, or perhaps the day after. But for tonight, we are safe. We should take advantage of it while we can.”
The last sliver of sun disappeared below the western horizon.
RAVEN
I WOKE IN THE HOSPITAL. Which, of course, was happening way too often these days.
I sat up and sighed. My mom’s eyes opened immediately in the chair beside my bed.
“Ester!” she said, smiling. “How are you feeling, sweetie?”
I shrugged. “Not too bad, I guess. How long was I out this time?” I knew the answer, of course, but it helped keep up the pretense when I acted like I didn’t.
“About eighteen hours,” she said, her smile becoming a little wan. “I guess you feel pretty well-rested.”
“I guess,” I said.
She stood and grabbed a brown plastic bag from a table on the other side of the room. “I brought some food for when you woke up. Chinese.”
I smiled. My favorite. One of the few good things these days was that I got to eat it all the time. “Thanks. That sounds great.” I pulled out a carton of orange chicken and began chowing down.
“It’s a little cold,” she said regretfully. “It’s always a little hard to know when…you know, when…”
When I was going to wake up. “It tastes great, mom. Don’t worry. I’m always starving after I’m out that long. You could feed me beans and rice and they’d taste like a gourmet feast.”
“I’ll remember that for next time,” she joked.
The room was empty. I didn’t want to sound needy, but I had to ask. “Where’s dad?”
“I sent him home,” she said gently. “He didn’t want to go, but I made him. He was here for fourteen hours straight. He’ll be back in the morning.”
“What time is it, anyway?”
“Just about nine o’clock. And you’ve got a visitor, if you’re up to seeing her.”
I arched an eyebrow. “A visitor? Who?”
“See for yourself,” she said mysteriously. She went to the room’s door and swung it open. “She’s awake, if you want to come in.”
In came Ember. I almost dropped my food in surprise. She’d clearly been crying. Her heavy mascara was streaked all over her face, and she hadn’t touched up her makeup to cover it. Her hair was disheveled. It looked like she had been sleeping out there.
“Ember!” I said. “How long have you been here?”
She gave a huge sniff. “I’m not really sure. Maybe five h
ours?” As if seeking confirmation, she looked at my mom, who nodded.
“Wow. You didn’t need to do that,” I said. “But thanks.”
Her lip started quivering, and I saw tears well up in her eyes.
I quickly looked at my mom. “Do you mind giving us a minute?”
“Of course,” she said. She slipped out the door and shut it behind her.
As soon as the door clicked shut, Ember burst into tears. She came to the bed and gave me a hard hug, clutching at me like a drowning woman holding a rope.
“I’m so sorry I was a jerk,” she blubbered.
I pushed her back gently to hold her at arm’s length. “What are you talking about?”
“The other day at the bus stop. I was so mean.”
I shook my head. “Ember, it’s fine. Don’t worry about it.”
She sat in the chair my mom had been in, but she didn’t let go of my hand. “I can’t stop worrying about it. I, like, totally ignored you. You know what’s really messed up? I didn’t even realize you were missing until today. Someone told me you’d gone to the hospital with this whole sleeping thing or whatever.”
I shrugged. “I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it.”
“But it is a big deal!” Ember protested. “What if you go to sleep and never wake up? I’d have to live the rest of my life thinking about the last things I said to you.”
I hesitated. I wanted to tell her that that wasn’t going to happen, but that would have been unimaginably cruel. The truth was, any day now I could sleep and never wake up, falling to a Shadow’s blade in Midrealm. Or they could breach the city walls and kill me in my sleep, and I could fall over dead right in front of my family. I couldn’t make them a promise that I wouldn’t be able to keep.
So instead, I said the only thing I could say. “It’s okay. I don’t hold it against you. I’ve been distant, and I haven’t been a great friend either. And no matter what you say to me, no matter how angry you get with me, you’re still always going to be my friend.”
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