The Beauty of Darkness (60 page)

Lia had set up a camp outside the valley for whatever children we could capture. Gwyneth, Pauline, and more soldiers were there. Natiya spoke the language and would reassure them that they wouldn't be harmed—and hopefully help comfort them—assuming we were able to get any more of them out of the valley alive.

I got back on my horse, watching Lia step closer to the Komizar. It was madness. I surveyed the cliffs. Watched the wall of the army poised to attack. Watched and waited and knew this was not just a parley. It was tearing nerves loose. The slow draw of a knife over skin. A stalking howl in a forest. The horses stamped, knowing, nervous.

“Shhh,” I whispered.

Make them suffer.

This was the Komizar, doing what he did best.

RAFE

I finally breathed as the Komizar rode away and Lia got back on her horse.

Zekiah was delivered as promised, whole and alive. He was rushed out of the valley to wait with Yvet. I had been expecting the worst, pieces perhaps, as the Komizar liked to threaten, but he always knew how to turn the moment. To plant doubt.

Lia had warned me he knew there were troops up in the ruins, and I sent soldiers to alert them. He may have known they were there, but he didn't know exactly where they would charge from, or how many of them there were. It was a long valley, and when the Viceregent had escaped, he only knew of me and my hundred men—not about the whole Dalbreck army.

The cloud rolled toward us again, but this time with ravenous hunger. I felt the thunder of its feet, both human and animal, but united as one raging beast. I sensed our troops tensing, ready to spring. I stretched out my left arm, a signal to hold.
Hold.

“You're sure he'll send them first?” I asked Lia. With the high hills around us, dusk was already closing in.

Lia's knuckles whitened. One hand clenched her reins, and the other, her hilt. “Yes. Him using Yvet and Zekiah is proof. He knows me. He knows what will unsettle our soldiers and make them hesitate. We are not like him.”

We watched them get closer, and their features came into view at last, lines of soldiers, ten deep, a hundred across. None of them older than Eben or Natiya. Most much younger. They held halberds, swords, axes, and knives. As they advanced, I saw their faces, wild, barely recognizable as children anymore.

I signaled the shield guard to move forward into position. “Shields up!” I ordered. Their shields interlocked with practiced precision. “Archers forward!” Orrin called.

And then the first of the brezalots charged.

LIA

The prodded animal streaked past their front lines, heading toward the shield guard. The ballistas tucked above us moved to the ridges, ratcheted, cocked, and ready. I watched them turn, aiming. Tavish waited with distressing patience and finally signaled the two with the best angles. “Fire!” The iron spears flew. One missed, but the other was a perfect shot, spearing the animal in its shoulder. The brezalot stumbled, fell, and then the earth exploded a safe distance away, meadow, horse, and blood, raining down, the pieces still on fire. The smell of burnt flesh filled the air.

And then another brezalot came.

And another.

The second was downed, but the third was only grazed by the iron spear, and charged into the shield guard. There was a scramble to get away, but it was too late. It exploded, leaving a gaping hole surrounded by dead bodies and pieces of beast. Orrin and his archers were knocked to the ground by the blast. Rafe and infantry rushed forward to help them, and the Komizar used the resulting chaos to send his brigade of child soldiers forward to further demoralize us.

“Retreat!” I yelled, loud and frantic, so even the Komizar would hear. “Retreat!”

Our lines hobbled back, the guard holding their shields in disarray, but the infantry behind us moved into position. Ready.

I watched. Breathless. Waiting. Drawing on patience I didn't know I had. The shield guards staggered back. The child soldiers bore down on them, charging down the middle of the valley toward us.

“Retreat!” I shouted again. The Vendan troops behind the children stalled, waiting for their young soldiers to add to our chaos before they moved in with their heavy weapons. I watched, my heart hammering, and then when the last of the children crossed a designated line, I yelled, “Now!”

Dirt soared into the air. Chunks of meadow and grass flew as rows of sharp-angled pikes sprang from beneath the valley floor. Two impassable rows crossed the width of the valley, trapping the children on our side. The children turned, stunned by the noise, and then nets were launched, falling on them, ensnaring them further. The infantry rushed forward to subdue them and then guide them out of the valley to where Natiya, Pauline, and Gwyneth waited with more soldiers.

I raced forward, stopping at the wall of pikes. I knew I had only seconds before another brezalot was readied to break through our wall or another of their heinous weapons was launched.

KADEN

Eight Vendans rode with us—the ones we trusted, who had revealed themselves back at the citadelle. This was the part I knew Rafe objected to—or maybe feared—but he rode forward on one side of Lia, and I on the other, watching for archers or others in range to take Lia down.

There was calamity on the other side of the pikes, a ripple of disturbance behind their front lines, orders rolling back.

“Brothers! Sisters!” Lia called, drawing their attention back to her. More word rippled back. There were Vendans at her side, including Griz and myself. It triggered a strained silence. She made a plea for surrender, settlement, a promise for peace, but she hadn't even finished her proposal when the Komizar, Chievdar Tyrick, and Governor Yanos pushed through on their horses. The Komizar's eyes fell briefly on me, the fire of my betrayal still blazing in them, and then his attention turned to a soldier who had stepped forward and lowered his weapon, listening to Lia. The Komizar swung his sword, and the man was halved. The front line soldiers raised their weapons, gripped in fists hot with fervor again to avoid the same fate, and then a herd of brezalots charged toward us.

RAFE

I was thrown from my horse. Splinters of wood rained down on me. A horn sounded, reverberating through the valley. I rolled to my feet, my sword drawn and shield raised. The battalions were launched. On the cliffs in the distance, I saw forces led by Draeger charging down a trail. On the opposite side, Marques's men did the same in an effort to divide the Vendan forces in two. Tavish fought at my back, the loud ring of steel coiling around us, both of us swinging, lunging, and cutting down the wall of Vendans coming at us. We finally made it back to our horses, and killed Vendans who were about to claim them. From atop my horse, I searched through the bedlam of brown and gray and flashing metal for a glimpse of Lia. She was gone. We fought our way to band with other ranks, then plowed through enemy lines, and headed toward the fifth division.

LIA

I scrambled to my feet, a knot of soldiers at my side. Thick dust filled the air. I'd lost sight of both Rafe and Kaden. Vendans swarmed in past the shattered pikes. I heard the burbling gasps of soldiers impaled with splintered wood. Darkness was creeping in, but the cliffs ignited with a line of fire, and stones were catapulted to scatter Vendan forces as Dalbreck's battalions swarmed to the valley floor. Jeb made it to my side.

“This way,” he said, and with a Dalbretch platoon, we pounded our way through Vendan lines. The screams of battle filled the air, echoing mercilessly between the valley walls. I heard the wheeze, the coughs, the thud of death sounding over and over again. The Komizar had been quick to silence my voice before it reached even a small number of Vendans, but now, with the youngest Vendan soldiers safely out of his reach, I knew where I had to go, where more would hear me. Faces became a blur as we advanced, my shield raised, my sword swinging, Jeb watching my back, and I his. My shield took a powerful blow, and I was knocked to the ground. I rolled before an ax hit the ground where my head had been, then thrust my sword into a soft gut as the soldier came at me again.

I jumped to my feet, spinning, my shield lifting to deflect another attack and then, in the swirl of metal and shadow, my eye caught something, something baubled and blue.

KADEN

The Vendan troops scrambled under the assault of stones raining down on them. The attack launched from the cliffs was only a distraction until the battalions could reach the valley floor. My leg ran with blood, a piece of wood piercing my thigh like a bayonet. I couldn't pull it out, so I broke it off, even as I stabbed my sword into a charging Vendan—one I had known. And then I killed another. And another. Griz fought his way toward me. Lia had been only feet from us, and now she was gone. We charged deeper into the Vendan ranks. Minutes seemed like hours, our progress slow, a stream of Dalbreck and Morrighese soldiers fighting at our sides, and then an explosion rocked the valley.

RAFE

A fiery plume shot into the sky, lighting the valley with sparks and flames. Fire rained down, thousands of glowing embers lighting on men and animals alike, horses rearing back in fear, soldiers screaming as they were lit on fire. I ran to one soldier, pushing him to the ground and rolling him to douse the flame, and then I saw Tavish. He beat at flames that streamed up his arm, lighting his hair. I tackled him, using my gloved hands to smother the flames. He screamed in agony even after the fire was out. I leaned close trying to calm him.

“You'll be all right, brother,” I said. “I promise you'll be all right.” He moaned with pain, and I ordered another soldier to take him back behind our lines, then helped lift him onto a horse.

The soldier left with Tavish, and that was when I felt my palms burning, already blistering from dousing the flames. I ripped off my gloves. They were saturated with the fiery substance that had rained down. I knelt, pressing my hands against the cool grass, and then I saw another soldier lying on the ground beside me. It was the Viceregent's son—Andrés. Kaden's brother was dead. I had time only to close his blank, staring eyes.

I rode toward Draeger's battalion, watching Vendans fall by the tens and hundreds, but no matter how many we felled, there were always more to replace them.

When I got to our battalions, Draeger and Marques had successfully fragmented the fifth division, but were already losing ground.

I saw Kaden making his way to me. Lia wasn't with him, and my heart stopped.
Where was she?
“I lost her,” he said when he reached me. “She's not with you?”

A Vendan as big as Griz came at us, swinging a mace in one hand and an ax in the other. He pummeled our shields, pushing us farther and farther back, until Kaden and I sidestepped at the same time and came from behind, both of our swords piercing his ribs. He fell like a tree, shaking the ground, and then behind him in the distance, we both spotted the Viceregent.

LIA

The terror, the blood, it was a wave crashing over us again and again coming at us from all sides. Every time a battalion gained ground, more brezalots were prodded forward, more arrows launched, more iron bolts whirred through the air piercing shields and flesh, more burning disks were hurled that clung to skin and seared lungs. The noise was deafening, roaring through the valley like a relentless storm. Fire and smoke rose, stinging ash fell. I lost my bearings, the bluff no longer in sight. Only moment by moment survival mattered. Swinging, stabbing, refusing to let him win.
It is not over.

Jeb was vicious in his attacks, as determined as I was to break through their next wave of lines, but we made no headway, our forces thinning with every new barrage of weapons. I saw glimpses of a heavily armed battalion ahead, horsemen battling above the heads of the infantry. There was no time to search for Rafe or Kaden among them, but I knew that was where they had been headed. The familiar pained squeal of a brezalot screamed through the air. I knew what that meant. Another one had been loaded with explosives and prodded forward. I heard the fearsome thud of its hooves, the hiss of its raging breaths growing louder as it thundered toward us. The sounds echoed, multiplied, surrounded us. I turned, unsure where it would appear, and then a rough hand shoved me, throwing me back.

It was Rafe.

We tumbled to the ground, even as the world exploded.

KADEN

“You can't do it.”

His breathing was labored, his words short, still trying to convince me.

I saw the terror in his eyes. I was stronger. I was quicker. I was driven by eleven years of anger.

Metal met metal. Our strikes vibrated between us.
You can't do it. I'm your father.

He thrust, his blade grazing my arm.

Blood trickled through my shirt, and his eyes lit with hunger. He glanced down at my leg, still impaled with the wood spike. I saw the calculation in his eyes.
How much strength did I have left?

I wasn't sure myself. The pain was getting harder to ignore. The stream of blood was sticky in my boot. I drove him back, the clang of steel chattering in the air.

“I'm your father,” he said again.

“When?” I asked. “When were you ever my father?”

His pupils were pinpoints, his nostrils flared. There was no scent of jasmine on him now. Only the scent of fear.

My blade pressed against his, holding, pushing, a lifetime of lies pulsing between us.

He pushed off and retreated back several paces. “I've tried to make amends with you,” he hissed. “You can't do it. Son. Let's start over. There's still time for us.”

I relaxed my grip on my sword. Lowered my guard. Stared at him. “Time? Now?”

His eyes glimmered, and he advanced, as I'd known he would, his swing fierce, knocking the sword from my hand. He smiled, ready to plunge his blade into me, but as he stepped forward, I stepped faster and, standing chest to chest, I thrust my knife upward into his gut.