Page 43 of The Prince's Sacrifice

Tor nodded. “The alternative is worse. Stay close. Try not to die?”

She swore and tightened her grip on her own sword, Cavun nodded firmly, and they moved forward as one and joined the chaos.

Getting closer didn’t make it any easier to figure out what was going on. There were a lot of wild swings, and Pel parried anything that came at him, genuinely not sure if it was friend or foe. It looked a bit like that’s what everyone was doing, to be honest.

Something slammed into the back of Pel’s leg, and he went down, twisting to see that someone had been sent sprawling, and their attacker was even now swinging at Pel. He tried to get his sword up in time—and something large and glowing practically exploded in front of him, sending his attacker flying.

Tor was suddenly there, offering Pel a hand. He grinned fiercely.

“Yeah, that’s not happening.”

Pel could only smile back at the man. And then their attention snapped away from one another as they fended off the next attack.

Was there even someone whocouldcall a retreat at this point? Pel couldn’t imagine anyone hearing anything in this. Did they just keep fighting until everyone was dead?

Another bright fork of lightning temporarily blinded them all, slashing out of the sky, but this time, it hit the mountain with a tremendous “boom,” making everything shake.

There were even more screams. Pel nearly lost his footing, and several people around him went down. The rumbling thunder seemed to go on and on… and then with a deafening crash, a huge boulder slammed into the middle of the battlefield.

And then another. And another.

Goddess help them.

It was a rockslide.

A rock came sailing out of the darkness and thudded into the ground near Pel’s feet. The ominous rumbling and crashing sounds grew louder and louder, more rocks thundering by, smashing into people, and—

The world lit up as though it was suddenly midday. Pel blinked, stunned. There was an instant where it felt like everything had gone eerily silent and calm—probably because everyone had stopped fighting. They were all staring upward in amazement. Because the sun hadn’t burst upon them.

It was Tor.

He’d thrown up a huge shield that stretched above them all, translucent and glowing with magic. Even as Pel watched, something massive crashed into the shield, making many people scream again. The shield held, and the boulder continued to crash down the mountain. But there was another rock and then another, all sorts of debris battering against the shield. They were clearly right in the path of the rockslide.

Everyone had stopped fighting because they were stunned, but if they started again, if they attacked one another while trapped under this shield together—

There was another scream, louder than the falling rocks or the thunder or the milling people. It was loud and high and piercing, and Pel froze, because that sounded like—

It sounded like a child.

“Where are they?” Tor demanded, whirling on the mass of stunned people. “Which direction? Tell me now!”

There was stunned silence for a moment, and then one of the soaked, bedraggled exiles—they weren’t wearing the castle leathers, they had to be an exile—spoke. He was still breathing hard, and he looked haunted.

“It’s children. Our elderly and injured. Those who can’t fight.”

Tor didn’t look away from him. “I will protect them with my life. I need to know where to put my shield. I can’t see them.”

The man stared at him for a long, taut moment, and then he said, “The south end of the clearing. A little closer to the pass.”

“How many? Give me an idea of size.”

He hesitated, but the piercing wail got louder, and he flinched visibly. “A little over fifteen hundred.”

Goddess.

Tor just nodded and closed his eyes, a look of intense concentration on his face. Was that even possible? Pel thought of those defense lessons with Larexa, how Tor had told her that he could maintain the shield even when he couldn’t see it. But they hadn’t even tested that out, and that wasn’t the same aserectinga shield over people you couldn’t see, was it? How could someone possibly do that?

The wailing cut off abruptly, and Pel prayed it was because Tor had got the shield up. The rocks kept coming, bashing into the shield with what had to be tremendous force. There were still periodic shrieks and yells as it happened, and Pel could see the strain on Tor’s face, his flinches at the blows.