Island Shifters: Book 03 - An Oath of the Children (39 page)

Kellan could pick out the
bodyshifters
from the
mismatched pieces of clothing
they wore
donated
by whatever
the defenders
could spare. Most of it looked like
small clothes,
but at least they were no longer naked.

Gregor
made his way to the gatehouse door.
“I’ll have them
draw sticks. Whoever pulls the short one, goes to Nysa.”

Kellan snorted.
“Defending the gates is the better option?”

“Apparently to this lot it is.”

After he left, Kirby
pulled
Kellan
aside.
“Look, if I don’t make it today,
can you
tell Kenley…can you tell your sister that I loved
her.
Tell her I never loved anyone as much as
I did
her and I’m sorry we won’t be together.”

Kellan was taken aback. He knew there was some flirtation between the two, but did not know it was
this
serious.
The Saber Captain
must
also
know that the chances Kellan walked
away from
this
alive
were just as nonexistent as his, but maybe he just needed to get it off his chest. Maybe he just wanted someone to know the depths of his feelings toward his sister.
Kellan was not about to take that away from him. “I will.”

He
glanced down to the ground
as one of the bodyshifters below cursed and
kicked angrily at the dirt.

It
would
seem the short stick
had been drawn.

C
HAPTER
31

B
ATTLE AT THE
G
ATES

The
defenders located
torches and lanterns in the shops along the square
to provide light as the night deepened.
Heavy clouds blocked out any help from the stars.
Kellan thought the Ellvinians might wait until dawn to strike, but Kirby felt confident it would happen under the cover of darkness.

The
Massans
were waiting.

Bodyshifters stood waiting to summon their most ferocious forms.
Earthshifters, fireshifters, and mindshifters prepared to unleash
lethal mayhem
into the enemy lines. The non-magical defenders equipped with sword or makeshift
clubs, organized into configurations
that would allow them the
greatest
longevity against a much larger foe.

The rules
of war
were simple. Kill or be killed.

Kellan
stood at the crenellated wall,
scanning the darkness for any hint of movement when
he
felt a presence beside him. He turned.
It was Reilly.

Kellan offered his friend a joyless smile.
“Where are the girls?”

“Kane will not let Izzy out of his sight, and Jala is standing with the fireshifters.” He snorted. “After Alia, that little sister of mine is
quite literally burning
for
vengeance.”

“How is Digby?”

Reilly shook his head.
“He is soaking in a tub now, but he needs more water. He
is
just
too distraught to care.”

“What can we do for him?”

Reilly shrugged. “What he needs is beyond our ability to give him. He wants his daughter back.”

Kellan
nodded with a heavy heart.
Digby, Liliana, and Alia were like family to him and it tore at his insides that such a thing could
have happened
so quickly—so violently.

He glanced sideways at the Dwarf.
He knew what he had to say—the words were easy enough, yet his mouth felt uncomfortably dry.
“We cannot let the
Ellvinians
through the gates, Reilly.
Whatever happens, they cannot get through.”

A long pause.
“I know.”

“What can you do?”

Reilly
frowned. “A whole lot of damage, but only as a last resort.”

Kellan
turned his gaze back north and
to
the moonlit sea beyond, dreading the watershifter’s
answer to his next question.
“How
would you do it?”

“If I can get
past
the
Ellvinians
and closer to the ocean, I
can create
waves high enough to flood the entire city, but there are two problems with that. One, I will be in the midst of the enemy while shifting and would need some very heavy protection.”

“The other problem?” Kellan asked.

“Water is
a
very powerful
force, my friend. Anything I do will
kill the defenders as well as the Ellvinians.”

Kellan’s grip on the parapet tightened until the stone cracked beneath his hands.
“This must be how the shifters in Pyraan felt when they confronted Adrian Ravener.
Over four thousand
shifters
perished, including my grandparents, when
the Mage
flooded the land. Are we
really
to share their
same fate,
Reilly?”

“I can see no other recourse,”
the watershifter
admitted.

“Then,
I think your last resort has arrived.”

Reilly cursed and turned his head
away.

Kellan
blinked back hot tears that sprang to his eyes.
“I wonder what our parents will think
after we are gone.”

“I hope they will understand that we did all we could,”
the
Dwarf
replied
gruffly. “I hope they will be proud that we upheld our oaths.”

“I think they will.”
Kellan wanted to say more to his friend, but the
words escaped him in that moment. Instead, he
resumed his watch and a breath hitched in his throat. Where a moment ago all was empty and dark, now
Ellvinians
filled his vision. Their eyes looked like ghastly black holes as they came forward from the shadows of the night. Together, this time, in perfect formation. Not hurried and disordered like the last time, but with measured, deadly grace. They made no noise as they poured out of the city and into the square, a merciless, relentless tide of dark Elves.

Kellan grabbed Reilly’s arm.
“Who will you take with you?”

“Jala and Dallin. They will give me the
best chance
to do what I have to do.”
Reilly
squeezed
Kellan’s hand
in his
affectionately. “I’ll see you on the other side, my friend.”

“I’ll be waiting.”

Reilly turned and ran
down the stairs.

“Fireshifters!” Kirby Nash cried out
from below
and the shifters standing along the bottom of the wall stepped up together and hurled fire into the
advancing
mass of
Elves.

Shouts of terror
echoed through the night and the smell of burnt flesh
once again drifted to
Kellan’s nose.
Elves
flailed their arms as they attempted to put out the fire racing up their bodies, but
just like the
conflict
outside of the mayor’s estate,
their movements only served to ignite their fellow fighters closest to them. One Ellvinian peeled
away
from the group and even though his entire body was engulfed in flames, attempted to reach the line of defenders. He took an arrow in the chest before he got close.

Mindshifters sought out the men on fire and directed them further back into the enemy line to cause as much damage as possible. It was a horrible, brutal use of magic.

Out of the now stalled horde of Ellvinians, a
group
of Battlearms
bypassed
the flaming center
and with swords drawn prepared to catch the Massans unaware from the right flank. Kellan thrust out a hand and
the earth pushed up through the cobblestones of the courtyard directly in the path of the oncoming Elves.
Surprised cries rang out as their running feet stopped
abruptly
and they pitched forward. The rotating
dirt swirled
at their feet and sucked them
into the ground to their knees.

Kellan turned
away
from the
ensnared Battlearms. They would cause no further harm this night.

The
enemy
lines from the back finally
broke through and trampled over their
burning comrades.
With no further obstacles between the two forces, there was no stopping them now
and they clashed with terrible impact.

Kellan snarled at the sight of an Ellvinian smashing his fist into the face of a young female
mindshifter. He launched himself from the
rampart and directly into the melee
with Maks landing next to him.
The noise was deafening as four-legged animals ripped and tore at flesh, birds in the air dove down to rake sharp claws at exposed skin, fire raged, the earth heaved,
and
sparks flew as swords crossed.

Kellan
knelt
and
crushed
both fists through the cobblestones
of the square. Reaching down into the dirt and
sand, he shifted the earth.
Filtering
through the softer soil, he summoned the harder substances up through the loam and an earthen armor of stones and clay rolled up and over his arms and body. With a growl, he shot to his feet and swung
his
arms. Those who tried to take him
down,
died in the process.

Kellan
and Maks
fought
their
way toward where he
last
saw the
embattled
mindshifter.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw four different replicas of Kane and his breath caught every time a sword plunged through a chest made of air.

Izzy sat atop a Grayan wolf and slashed a dagger at any Elf who managed to get by the wolf’s sharp jaws. Not many did.

There was no sign of the Radeks.

The cawing of a crow close by caused him to turn. Kellan
blinked in disbelief. An old woman
fought
alongside the
Massans
with a crow perched on her shoulder.
Despite her age, the woman moved deftly and with lethal consequence as she inflicted death to the enemy with every point of a
twisted
finger. Every so often,
the bird would take to the air to slice at the eyes of the woman’s opponents
if they moved in too close
and then it would settle back onto
her shoulder.

He remembered the tale the kidnapped shifters told him and if he ever saw them again, he
promised he would offer them an
apology for finding their story
unbelievable.

Kellan shook his head and continued on. Several swords licked out
from
the night at him, but they
either
bounced harmlessly off his armor or the wielder lost his arm to Maks.
At last,
he saw the mindshifter
so brutally assaulted, but she already had the
Ellvinian in her mental grasp,
and he was
now
protecting her from his fellow
fighters.

Sudden thunder boomed
and fingers of light spread through the roiling clouds above.
Kellan looked up in dismay as the first raindrops fell from the sky.
It was the worst possible scenario. The rain would put out the fires continuing to rage through the enemy ranks and render the fireshifters useless.
It would also hamper Kane’s ability to cast his illusions.

With a muttered curse, he
looked around at the battlefield helplessly.
The
Massan
defenders were killing an exorbitant amount of the enemy, but they were dying as well
and they had a lot less to lose.