He glanced at me and gave me a brief nod as he ran up the steep incline toward us, but then he went right on past me to Jiro. The other Blevonese men and a couple of women behind him stopped a little way below us on the larger trail. And just behind them jogged a huge man with skin as dark as the night.
“Deron!” I cried out. I hadn’t seen my old captain since I’d returned. When he heard his name, his head snapped up so that his eyes met mine.
I sheathed my sword and ran down to meet him halfway, shocking him by throwing my arms around his neck. He awkwardly patted my back, and I quickly let go to step back. He cleared his throat and gruffly said, “I’m glad you’re alive.”
“I am, too,” I replied.
“But not for long, if we don’t figure out how to stop them,” someone said from behind Deron. When I saw that it was Jerrod, I wasn’t entirely surprised. But then I remembered what he’d been like when I’d last seen him, stunned and full of remorse from accidentally killing another guard, and I decided I was glad he’d seemingly recovered enough to be pessimistic again.
Jerrod’s tunic was singed on the edge of one of his sleeves, and when he noticed me looking at it, he glanced over his shoulder at the rest of the soldiers, guards, and sorcerers who were rushing up the trail to fall back and protect the temple.
“They’ve already made it this far?” I asked, though I knew the answer from the bleak looks on everyone’s faces.
“It’s a bloodbath,” Jerrod said quietly. “There’s too many of them, and they have so many black sorcerers. We had to call a retreat, or we would all be dead right now as well.”
I glanced at Deron, hoping he’d rebuke Jerrod and give us some sort of hope, but he just stared forward in silent agreement. My stomach plummeted as fear gripped my heart with icy claws.
“We have to stop them,” I said, making my voice firm, shoving my own worries down deep where I could hide them. “We will have the upper hand here. It’s narrow, and we can climb the trees and pick them off with arrows. Who are your best shots, General?” I turned to Deron, and at the businesslike tone in my voice he snapped back to alertness and began to point out soldiers, barking their names and ordering them to climb the trees and use their arrows to take out as many Dansiians as possible.
The men and one woman he’d pointed to all scrambled to obey him, moving to different trees and starting to climb as high as they could go while still remaining in good range to pick off the Dansiians. I honestly didn’t know if their arrows would be able to reach any of the black sorcerers who were heading toward us, because they could just use their fire to incinerate them, but at least it gave them focus and hope.
One of the last Antionese soldiers to rush up the path, her face streaked with soot and her arm cut and bleeding, was Tanoori. I wondered how she had gotten assigned to such a difficult location. She should have been put somewhere much safer, where there would have been little chance of fighting. In fact, I wished that she had chosen to go with the women and children to the southwestern part of Blevon, where she would have been completely safe.
But instead, she hurried up to stand beside me, trying not to wince in pain when she sheathed her sword.
“What can you tell me to help prepare us?” I asked.
“They’re coming,” Tanoori said, her voice shaking slightly. “They sent the majority of their soldiers to the city to fight, with a few black sorcerers, but the king and the rest of his black sorcerers headed directly for the canyon. Even with the Blevonese sorcerers, we couldn’t stop them. There were too many.” She shook her head, and her shaking got worse. I’d seen it before — she was going into shock. She’d probably never been in a true battle before, never seen people dying left and right.
“Come over here and sit down; put your head between your knees,” I instructed, pulling her over to a large, flat boulder. She followed without protesting, and once she was doing as I said, breathing slowly in through her nose and out through her mouth, I returned to Deron and Jerrod. Rylan now stood with them as well. When I glanced up at the temple, Damian still stood on the ledge, watching us, his expression unreadable in the falling haze of twilight.
“How many are there?” I asked Deron, but he shook his head. “Your best guess,” I added.
“Twenty? Thirty? There could be more behind them. All I know is that we were prepared to fight soldiers with maybe a few black sorcerers, and instead, they created this thick cloud of darkness around themselves and continually threw their abominable fire at us and forced us to retreat, killing far too many of my men without even trying.”
“How far back are they?” I pressed.
“The last blast caused a landslide that blocked the trail, so hopefully that will hold them back for at least a little bit.”
I knew, after having watched them destroy the massive wall between Antion and Dansii, that it wouldn’t take them long to clear the path again. As if to illustrate my point, another boom shook the ground beneath our feet.
“We need to think of something that we can do to take out as many of them as possible before they can use their fire to kill us all. What weapons could we use? What trap could we set that would kill as many sorcerers as possible?” I asked, spinning to look down the trail. Then an idea suddenly struck me.
“Who here has the ability to cause an earthquake?” I shouted up at the Blevonese soldiers and sorcerers. Jiro and Borracio were talking together, but when they heard my question they both turned and looked at me curiously, as did many others. Damian’s eyes narrowed, and I wondered if he could hear me from where he was standing. When he turned to say something to King Osgand and then began to walk across the ledge toward the field where we all stood, I motioned for him to go back, but he ignored me and continued forward.
“Why do you ask?” Jiro called, and I jogged up to where he stood, beckoning Deron and the rest to follow me. Tanoori had calmed down enough to stand up, and she came as well.
“Our only hope of defeating Armando and his sorcerers is to take out as many of them as possible before they can use their fire to kill us,” I repeated myself.
“I agree, but how do you propose we do that?” Borracio asked, his keen eyes trained on me.
Damian strode over to where I stood and said, “Alexa, what’s going on?”
I looked up at him and smiled. “I think I have an idea.”
The waiting was torture — the anticipation and fear of what was to come. Would it work? Or would we all die in the next few minutes? I’d begged Damian to go back to the temple with King Osgand, but he’d refused.
“If I am to die today, I will do it by your side, not standing like a coward up there, watching my people fall before me,” he’d said, staring down into my eyes and making me wish I hadn’t stopped him last night. “Plus, I can help,” he’d added.
He stood beside me now, so tense his shoulders were slightly hunched forward. I’d never seen him with anything other than perfect posture.
The booms and explosions continued at regular intervals for several long minutes. But then, finally, there was nothing but silence.
“Get ready,” I called out quietly, and the warning was repeated swiftly across the line of sorcerers that stood waiting for the first sighting of the black sorcerers. My plan was simple, but if it worked, it would be very effective.
We all strained to see in the growing darkness as the sun began to dip below the western horizon. The sky was stained crimson and orange from the final rays of daylight — fitting colors for this day full of blood and fire.
And then I saw it — a flash of black weaving between the trees far below us, trying to stay out of sight.
A Dansiian sorcerer, still wearing the robes King Armando insisted they use.
Right when I spotted him, a quiet trill, like the coo of a songbird, sounded. The signal for our sorcerers to ready themselves. Behind the first, many more began to appear. Soon, the trees would disappear for a stretch where the trail was surrounded by the sheer walls of the ca
nyon on both sides, and they would have no choice but to come out in the open.
And that was when we would strike. When they were forced to reveal themselves and would most likely begin to attack us with their fire.
As I watched, the first black sorcerer stopped just before the trail narrowed and he would have had to come out in the open. He was waiting for the rest of them to catch up — to overwhelm us with sheer force and numbers.
I lifted my hand, signaling our sorcerers, including Damian, who were lined up to wait. I stood beside him so I could have a good vantage point on what was happening. Eight other Blevonese sorcerers had the ability to cause an earthquake, including Borracio and Jiro and a woman who stood next to my father’s cousin.
The Dansiians stretched out in a line, a veritable wall of black robes, and behind them I could see even more men in robes. Black sorcerers facing off against all that remained of the sorcerers who refused to turn to blood and sacrifice to seek greater abilities. I sent up a silent prayer to the Unseen Power, or whoever else might be listening to help us, to fulfill the promise to give the Blevonese sorcerers greater power in their time of need. I wondered where the Rén Zhsas were — why they didn’t come out to help us. Surely they had more power that we could have utilized? Maybe they feared our failure and stayed inside the temple as a last protection for what lay within its walls.
But then there was no more time to wonder or wish for help or pray for more power. The front row of black sorcerers lifted their hands as one, and identical flames burst up from their palms. They began to slowly walk forward as the fire they wielded grew larger and larger.
I kept my hand lifted. “Wait,” I cautioned. We had to make sure as many of them as possible would be targeted.
“Surrender now,” a terrifyingly familiar voice suddenly shouted from behind the line of sorcerers, echoing up the canyon, “or you will all die!”
“That’s Armando,” I whispered urgently to Damian. “He’s here.”
He turned his head sharply to look down at me and then snapped it forward again to peer into the oncoming line of sorcerers, searching for his uncle.
“Ready,” I called out, louder now.
“I’ll take that as a no,” King Armando shouted, and then the sorcerers pulled their arms back to launch the writhing flames at us.
“NOW!” I shouted and then threw my arms out to brace myself as the ground began to shake.
Our sorcerers focused their aim right beneath the black sorcerers, only tearing apart the earth they stood on. With all nine sorcerers, including Damian, acting at once, the trail tore apart almost immediately, swallowing up the black sorcerers and their fire. They fell out of sight, inhuman screams filling the air. But one of them was able to hurtle his fire first before falling. It sailed through the air toward a section of waiting soldiers who dove out of the way just before it exploded against the hard ground near some trees, setting a trunk on fire. Someone shrieked in pain but there wasn’t time to look over and see who it was, because the rest of the sorcerers and everyone else who had been behind their front line were running forward, leaping over the falling earth to land on the other side. We’d taken out a large number of the black sorcerers, but more were coming, and our sorcerers couldn’t make the hole any wider without risking the entire trail collapsing and possibly setting off a chain reaction that would take all of us and the temple with it.
“Archers!” Deron shouted, and Jiro added his own shout in Blevonese as we all began to fall back, rushing to escape the reach of the fire that the remaining black sorcerers were conjuring up. Some of our sorcerers stopped and threw their hands out, knocking one or two of the black sorcerers down.
The whistle of arrows sounded as we turned and ran back to higher ground, where the rest of the soldiers and sorcerers awaited the fight. I heard one or two cries of pain as arrows hit targets, but not nearly enough. I stopped and, swinging my own bow over my head, I grabbed an arrow, quickly notching it, and spun around to take aim. The first black sorcerer I spotted was looking up at some archers in the trees ahead of him, lifting his arm to ready his unholy fire. I let my arrow fly, and it rushed through the air, hitting him straight through his eye, knocking him to the ground. The fire in his hand extinguished, unthrown. He was dead.
“Alexa!” I heard Damian’s frantic shout, and I sprinted to catch up to him and everyone else trying to get out of reach of the fire that was exploding all around us. There were more screams and cries of pain as the black sorcerers hit some of our men. I didn’t dare look back, terrified I would see someone I knew.
There wasn’t much farther for us to go — the temple loomed ahead. We had to turn and fight.
I grabbed another arrow and stopped to turn back and try to take out another one of the enemy. But what I saw turned my blood to ice in my veins — Rafe was running toward us, sword lifted. He was easy to pick out because of the empty eye socket he had; only puckered flesh remained of what used to be his eye.
I took aim at him, hoping that I could somehow break through his command, but the instant I pulled the string back, confusion clouded my mind and I let the arrow drop down again.
“Alexa!”
The frantic shout of my name shook me from the haze to see Rafe grinning at me, his one remaining eye glinting. “Hello, Alexa,” he called out. “I can’t tell you how happy I am to see you here, so that you can protect me from harm.”
I turned and ran, desperate to get as far away from him as possible, so that I wouldn’t be forced to do exactly that — to protect him from my own people.
Another fireball exploded right next to me, knocking me to the ground and taking out several of our soldiers and at least one of the Blevonese sorcerers. I groaned and forced myself to my feet. I hadn’t been burned, just bruised and shaken. But I’d dropped my bow. Rather than turning back to get it, I yanked my sword out as I finally reached Damian and Rylan, who stood together, gripping their own swords.
“We have no choice but to fight,” Rylan said, his gaze meeting mine, and I could see the dread beating in my stomach echoed in the depths of his eyes. He’d seen Rafe, too.
I turned to look up at Damian for a moment, and then I spun on my heel and shoved my sword in the air. “For Antion!” I shouted, and then I raced back the way I’d come, straight at the enemy.
The nearest black sorcerer hadn’t been expecting my attack, and when he saw me coming he tried to throw his fire at me, but his aim went wide when I cut to the inside of the trail. And then an arrow whizzed past me and went straight through his throat. He’d been distracted by my attack, and one of our archers had noticed. I rushed forward, plunging my sword into his chest and then back out again, making sure to finish the job. He collapsed to the ground, but behind him stood another man in a robe.
He didn’t hold up a gloved hand — he wielded no flames. He gripped a curved sword in his left hand, though.
A decoy, I thought, and hurtled toward him, sword raised. He lifted the sword to parry my blow, and we began to fight in earnest. All around me, the sounds of battle echoed in the canyon. I saw a body swathed in black robes go flying past us and a Blevonese sorcerer rushing after him, one hand raised and a sword in the other, as our blades clashed together again and again. We circled and lunged, parried and feigned in a deadly dance. He was skilled but not as fast as I was. He got in a good swipe and nearly took a piece of my arm, but I managed to spin away in time, just as a fireball exploded right above us, singeing the backs of my arms. In my haste to avoid being impaled, I tripped over a burning body behind me. I quickly regained my balance and then barely got my blade up in time to block his next blow.
I went on the attack, pressing my advantage of speed by swiping my sword back and forth and back again, a flurry of movement, until he misjudged my next move and went to block a blow that wasn’t coming — so that I was able to drive my sword through his other side. In and out. His eyes widened and then he collapsed to the ground, landing on his sword as his eyes rolled up into
his head.
I looked up right as another fireball flew toward me, and I threw myself to the side, narrowly avoiding being burned again, then rolling a few feet across the hard, frozen ground, tearing my sleeve open and skinning my elbow. Someone held out a hand, and I looked up to see Tanoori. I quickly took it and let her help me up, and then together we turned to face what was left of the Dansiian horde. Soldiers and sorcerers fought all around us. Trees were burning and bodies littered the ground.
When I saw Rafe standing a few feet away, fighting one of the Blevonese soldiers, my mind suddenly went hazy.
I realized I needed to protect him.
I ran toward him, with Tanoori on my heels. Was she a threat to Rafe? I glanced over, but her sword was still at her side. No.
But the Blevonese soldier was. I lifted my sword and jumped in front of him, parrying his blow.
“Perfect timing,” Rafe said. But I ignored him, fighting the Blevonese soldier for him.
“Alexa! What are you doing?” I heard Tanoori’s question, and when I glanced over, she was lifting her sword, readying herself to fight Rafe. I quickly surmised that the Blevonese soldier was the greater threat, so I continued to fight him. I had to finish him off first, then I could deal with the second threat.
“Alex! Please, what’s wrong with you! That’s our man!”
The sounds of blades crashing echoed all around me along with Tanoori’s shouts, but I had to focus on protecting Rafe. The Blevonese soldier was skilled, but he seemed hesitant to fight me for some reason. I had just managed to get past his defenses and strike a blow to his leg when a bloodcurdling scream made me pause.
I spun around to see Tanoori standing in front of Rafe, her arms hanging at her side, his blade run through her belly. The haze suddenly cleared and left me shaking with horror.
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