“I understand, my son.” Father’s lips twitched with a faint smile and I thought I recognized pride in his expression. It was a look I’d seen him reserve most often for Teryn. “But if I…and Teryn both—”
“If it should come to that, I will retreat. But first, I will fight.”
* * *
Cora
I stood between the trees at the top of a hill overlooking the valley of Centerpointe Rock. Across the valley atop the opposite hill, I could see the faint light of fires where the allied Forces camped. The sky was dark from the newness of the moon, lit only by the expanse of stars. The old rock in the center of the valley looked harmless—nothing like an ancient ruin from a forgotten war. Nothing like a place where blood would be spilled.
In the morning, there would be war. In the morning, I would watch the Forest People put their lives in danger. I would put my life in danger. I would see if Teryn still lived as Morkai promised. I would have my chance to avenge my first family.
I leaned against the rough bark of the tree behind me, breathing in the smell of the aromatic pine. Waiting. My hand idly went to the hilt of the dagger at my waist. I unsheathed it, placing it gently over my palm as I watched the pure-white blade catch the starlight.
I sensed movement in the distance, and a moment later I felt a warmth in my heart that could only mean one thing. Valorre.
Silently, he stepped out of the brush and came to my side. I sheathed my dagger and wrapped my arms around his thick neck as he nuzzled me in the shoulder. Tears streamed down my cheeks.
Were you able to succeed at your mission? I asked him.
It is done.
I felt the tension and fear leave my shoulders with every breath as I buried my face into Valorre’s smooth, white coat. There was hope.
Valorre and I stood side by side in silence until my eyes began to grow heavy.
Sleep. I’ll guard. Valorre stood in front of me, blocking my view of the valley.
I wanted to argue, but sleep was far too tempting to avoid. I laid down at the base of a tree and wrapped myself in my cloak. Sleep quickly overtook me, and I dreamed. I dreamed of blood and blades and a field of darkness punctuated by glowing white lights. In the middle of the field was Morkai and the Roizan, staring hungrily at the chaos around them. Morkai raised his staff and struck the ground, sending a ripple of power outward onto the field of war. Everything in the valley, the darkness, the light, rose into the air in tiny flakes of ash. When the ash settled on the ground, the field was empty.
* * *
I woke with a cold certainty that danger was near. Valorre confirmed this with his twitching ears and trembling legs as I stood and joined him to look over the valley once again. The sky was beginning to blush with the first light of day, and the air was cool and damp. Not a single birdsong whistled from the trees or soared over the hilltops. Silence.
Morkai comes, Valorre said.
A light misting of fog danced over the valley in places. My eyes searched every inch of the field and hills and between every tree for a sign of danger. With a prickling of the skin at the back of my neck, I felt my eyes move to the base of a nearby hill. I watched, unblinking for countless moments.
My heart raced. I held my breath.
A subtle red fog began to creep onto the field. I blinked to ensure I was truly seeing what I thought I saw. Before long, the evidence was clear. The fog rolled in thicker, bolder, undeniably tinged with red, sending the gray mist to scurry from the valley floor.
A sound echoed through the valley, a deep, reverberating pounding. Slowly but steadily the sound grew. The red fog spread until it blanketed the entire field. I looked back to the base of the hill. The pounding stopped.
A black figure emerged, walking onto the field with deliberate steps.
The Roizan followed.
32
Centerpointe Rock
Teryn
The red fog swirled around my ankles, reaching my knees in places as I walked onto the field. Bound at the wrists with Dimetreus firmly guiding me by the shoulder, I could do nothing more than follow Morkai. The looming hide of the Roizan blocked all view of anything ahead.
My skin crawled with the thought of the immense armed Force crowding behind me. Would my father’s Force be at the Rock, standing behind him? Would they be even a fraction of what followed me?
My heart raced the further we went into the valley. I knew we must be nearing the Rock. Nearing my fate.
A flash of stone caught my eye in the space between Morkai and the Roizan. I craned my neck to get a clearer look of the Rock. It wasn’t nearly as foreboding as I’d imagined it to be. In my head, I’d pictured a black, jagged crag with sharp edges, charred like Morkai’s staff. But the Rock before us was a weathered gray, spanning the length of about a dozen men shoulder-to-shoulder, and appeared to be equally as wide. It was only waist-high with a relatively flat surface.
Morkai slowed his pace and turned to me. “Come.”
Dimetreus pushed me forward. I stumbled to Morkai’s side, catching my footing as I took in the view beyond the Rock. At the other edge of the field, a mass of soldiers was gathered. An array of banners waved over their heads, displaying three different sigils: a white rose on a gold background, a gray eagle on a blue background, and a yellow sun on a green background. Their numbers spanned from one side of the valley to the other. There was no telling how far back the Forces went, but from what I could tell, there were more men than I had hoped.
Morkai led me to stand in front of the Rock, and three figures emerged from the other side and began to approach us. As they came nearer, I saw it was my father surrounded by two guards.
I choked back tears that seared my throat as my father’s face became clear. My body strained to remain upright, fighting against my desire to run to him and crumble in his arms like a boy. No, I would keep my composure, no matter how small I felt at that moment.
Father stopped a few paces away and his eyes locked with mine. I didn’t need a mirror to know what he saw. I was filthy, poorly fed, and terrified. Pity, worry, and something like disgust passed over Father’s face, followed by a mask of calm as his eyes went to Morkai.
“Sorcerer.” He said the word as if it tasted of bile.
“King Arlous. How nice to see you. I have presented your son unharmed. Have you considered my terms?”
“I have, but before we discuss anything, I require a change of hostage. You will take me in Teryn’s stead.”
Morkai’s face remained impassive as he eyed my father with a hungry intensity. “Agreed.”
Father turned and nodded at one of the guards, who in turn stepped forward and took me by the arm.
My life had been spared. I’d known Father would never surrender, and I’d known he would do whatever he could to keep me alive. But no matter how many ways I’d imagined the meeting at Centerpointe Rock, I’d never pictured it ending in anything but my death. Morkai’s words had been branded on my every thought. Surrender or Teryn dies.
Yet I was alive. For now.
I pulled away from the guard and turned back to my father as he and Morkai climbed upon the Rock. I opened my mouth several times, but no words would come. What did I want to say to him? I’d spent weeks imagining what my last words to him would be. And even though it looked like I’d live to breathe another breath, it still seemed imperative that I say something.
Sensing my halt in progress, Father looked my way. “Go, son.”
The guard pulled me forward once again. When we reached the gathered Forces, King Verdian held out his arm for me to take my place at his side. The guard cut my bindings and began outfitting me in armor. Every moment between tightening straps and securing plates, I fixed my eyes on Centerpointe Rock.
My Father and Morkai stood facing each other atop the Rock, too distant to hear as they spoke. Dimetreus and my father’s guard stood on the field below at opposite sides of the Rock. Behind them loomed Morkai’s Force. His indigo blue banners, bearing either h
is own black moon sigil or the red crown of Norun, went as far back as I could see. I swallowed hard. His Force was certainly larger than ours.
“What is going to happen?” My voice came out like a croak as I strapped my sword to my hip.
Verdian kept his voice low as he said, “Your father will negotiate. If the sorcerer refuses any terms for peace, Arlous will agree to war on the condition Morkai keeps him alive during battle. We have a special Force waiting to rescue him.”
As I stood under the weight of the armor, I found I was still shaking from the shock of being alive. At least it was a comfort to know there was a plan in place to protect my father. Even if that plan was war.
The inaudible conversation between Morkai and my father continued. I tried to read their faces to gauge how the negotiations fared, but both wore equally unreadable expressions. Morkai’s hands were steepled at his chest while my father’s were calmly at his side.
The conversation appeared to stop as Morkai turned his back to my father, looking pensive as he brought a hand to his chin and stroked his beard. My father turned his head toward me, and I could almost make out a reassuring smile.
As Father turned back to face Morkai, a quick flash of the sorcerer’s arm brought a dagger’s blade across my father’s throat.
Morkai stepped back and watched with calm as Father brought his hand to the bleeding gash. Father’s guard drew his sword and sprung forward. As he leapt atop the Rock, Morkai raised his staff and thrust it toward the guard. The guard fell to the ground, dead.
My father continued to struggle with his gaping wound as Morkai once again faced him. Father fell to his knees as Morkai placed a hand on his shoulder. He began to shake. His hands fell from his neck and dropped to his side as blood continued to spill forth. Then Father went still. Morkai released his shoulder and took a step back, smiling as Father fell limp upon the rock.
There was no sound. There was no feeling. I remained in place, blinking at nothing as bodies raced past me.
33
Battle
Larylis
One moment. I had one moment to accept that my father was dead before the horns blew, signaling war. I felt like the breath had been pulled from my lungs. My heart felt like it would burst from my chest, and my legs threatened to give way beneath me. However, I had a sworn duty to perform. In that duty I would avenge my father.
I pulled the black mask over my face as did the others behind me. I turned to them, a sea of men in dark clothing, faces covered in masks that revealed a set of blinking eyes at front with painted eyes at the back. I wasn’t sure if we looked comical or terrifying, but one thing was certain; we did not look ordinary. Ordinary would get us killed by the wraiths.
“You know our target!” I raised my voice over the din of madness that surrounded us. Arrows soared overhead. The Red Force was already well underway. “Seek out the wraiths. Confuse them. Kill them. Do not stop until your last breath.”
The masked men shouted their agreement.
“For King Arlous!”
The Black Force echoed my words.
“For my father,” I said to myself. And with that we charged ahead, straight into the chaos of blood and flashing steel.
* * *
Teryn
My cheek stung as I blinked. Sound came rushing to my ears, a cacophony of battle cries, the screech of metal on metal, and the sound of someone shouting in my face. I looked in front of me; a blur of colors sharpened until Lex’s face became clear.
“Snap out of it!” Lex raised his hand toward my face again.
“I’m here.” My voice sounded far away.
Lex let out a breath. “Thank the Gods. I saw you standing there like an idiot. You’re going to get shot or stabbed standing here in the open. We need to get out there.”
“So we can get shot or stabbed?”
One side of Lex’s mouth lifted into a sad smile. “Exactly.”
I looked Lex up and down, outfitted in plates of armor painted red. “You’re Red Force too?”
“Well, I’m certainly not fast. Or much of an archer. So yeah, Red it is.”
I nodded and assessed my own red armor. How much red could I add to it before my own blood spilled from beneath its plates?
Lex put a hand on my shoulder. “I’m sorry about your father.”
“Thanks, Lex.”
“We should go. Are you ready?”
I hadn’t expected to live, much less fight, and I was in no physical condition to do so. But that didn’t matter. I looked to the Rock where Morkai still stood, pointing his staff, shouting, smiling. Vengeance was calling. “Yes. Let’s go.”
* * *
Cora
Arrows rained down from the trees into the valley below. The Forest People archers showered Morkai’s men with their deadly aim as the sorcerer’s Force raced to meet the charge from the other side. I nocked an arrow, pulled it to my cheek, and released it with a thrum and a whoosh. Then another. And another. It was hardly enough to put a dent in Morkai’s numbers, but it was something.
As the Forces combined and the clash of swords and armor rang out, the archers held back. Our warriors ran down the hillside and into the fray. How quickly blood began to flow. I swallowed the lump in my throat and resisted the urge to look away.
Nalia passed behind me, and her song-like chanting sent a wave of calm through my body. I couldn’t understand the Ancient tongue she chanted in, but I understood the intention behind her invocations. Protection. Strength. Victory. Peace.
I closed my eyes and breathed in Nalia’s words. Breathing out, my senses sharpened. I found Morkai atop the Rock. He was pointing his staff into the roiling sea of men, this way and that. The Roizan stomped over to Morkai and stood next to the Rock as Morkai continued pointing his staff in seemingly purposeless directions. What are you up to?
I remembered the way Morkai had shown me his power at Ridine, how he destroyed an entire field of wraiths with one blow from his palms. I expected him to do the same here at any moment. My breath caught each time he pointed his staff. Yet I knew he wouldn’t risk killing his own men with such a reckless use of power. Or would he?
My eyes searched the valley for some clue to Morkai’s motives. All I saw was a field dotted with figures in different colors—black and red from the Royal Forces, indigo blue from Morkai’s Force, a few specks of brown from the Forest People, and a grayish blur from the wraiths. All were mixed together in a garish, grizzly painting.
Then the painting began to change. The gray slowly began to draw away from the others, condensing closer and closer together until they filled the field just left of the hill I stood upon. From the Rock, Morkai pointed his staff directly at them.
Figures in black charged the wraiths from all sides of the field until it became a swirling dance of black and gray. Morkai’s staff glowed red.
My heart raced and a chill spread from the back of my neck down to my arms; I understood his plan. It was now time to enact my own. I looked to Valorre who stood at my side, and not a single thought was needed to convey what we would do next. I pulled myself onto his back and closed my eyes. As I breathed out, I released the glamour, letting it slip from Valorre and the entire hillside. “Now!”
We stormed down the hill, Valorre’s pounding hooves echoed by nearly a hundred others following behind us. Unicorns in all colors of white, brown, black, and gray charged into the valley. As expected, the Roizan sprung from Morkai’s side, leaping after the flashes of color that sped by him, tempting him one way and another throughout the field.
Morkai stared after his frantic Roizan. My eyes narrowed as I charged directly toward the sorcerer. Bow in hand, I steadied my breathing, my thoughts, my heart, and pulled an arrow from my quiver—my one and only white-tipped arrow with white fletching on the end. One of two gifts from the stolen unicorn horns.
I nocked the arrow and pulled the bowstring back. Morkai met my eyes, smiling a devious smile. He raised his staff and pointed it toward me. I conti
nued to charge ahead. Ready. Aim.
I froze. A figure climbed upon the Rock behind Morkai, sword drawn. Teryn ran at the sorcerer. Morkai turned toward him and stepped gracefully out of Teryn’s sword’s reach, and in the same move, plunged his dagger into Teryn’s side between two plates of armor.
Grief clawed at my heart as I watched Teryn grip his side and fall from the Rock. With a strangled cry, I released the arrow. It struck Morkai’s shoulder, although from the look on his face, you’d think he’d simply been stung by a bee. With a frown of mild annoyance, he pulled the arrow from his shoulder with ease and tossed it to the ground. As we neared the Rock, I slid from Valorre’s back. Fire filled my body, rising from my toes to my torso, through my arms, and down my fingertips. I raised my palms toward Morkai and sent him flying off the Rock.
I had no idea where the sorcerer landed, but he was not my concern at that moment. It was Teryn I was looking for. I found him at the base of the Rock, lying in the muddy grass, gripping his side as blood flowed between his fingers. I knelt by him, tears streaming from my eyes as I gently removed his thick plates of armor. Armor that had not protected him.
Teryn winced as he looked up at me. “Cora,” he managed to gasp.
“I’m here. Stay here too, you hear me?” My calm voice was a mask over my trembling nerves. “Just breathe.” I grabbed the hem of my cloak and cut a long strip of cloth with Teryn’s dagger. Gingerly, I wrapped it around Teryn’s torso, forcing him to lift his body as little as possible. I would have given anything for a healer’s pouch and powers at that moment. I would trade my empathy, my power, my curse, just to make sure Teryn was going to live.
“We need to get you to a healer,” I said.
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