Page 161 of Commanding Flame and Shield
And then I saw it—beyond the clearing. They had burned the forest, leaving jagged toothy black stumps. Like the teeth of the canyon, they formed a perimeter at the edge of the clearing before that daunting drop. Smoke eerily hovered over the charred earth. Slowly, meticulously, they rose from the embers. A planned entrance, meant to strike fear in the hearts of our host. Towering bodies emerging between the singed trees. Ally hissed—it was a message for her, a taunt of the power now bound within her blood and bones.
Despite Alvara’s nuclear death blow, they still had at least twice our numbers. And that was before the chained beasts staggered forward, hackles risen, growls rumbling the earth. My ribs cemented into place.
Adrastos, head and shoulders taller than the rest, stepped to the forefront of burned earth, the clearing an eerie stretching gap between forces. His dark hair flipped on the wind as he sneered at our forces.
“It can all be over, Commander Amadeus.” The swaggering drawl was all mockery. “We will have The Great Commander by this night’s end. I’ve seen it. Yoursecondhas seen it. Save yourself the heartache.”
“Eh. We’ve faced worse odds.” He shrugged, the nonchalance chilling in the face of the looming bloodletting. Low, anxious laughter rumbled through our lines.
“We were promised proof of life.” Alvara’s eyes seemed to burn like embers as she spoke, directly to Adrastos. Like her magic was just below the surface of the pool of those emerald irises, ready to burn them all alive the moment she broke the Reaper’s negotiated spell. Carved of stone and hellfire, she stood, unyielding.
The Renown broke into howls and their beasts bayed in her presence.
Alvara didn’t flinch when Adrastos snarled at her demand. Gone was the swaggeringcousin. Gone was the negotiator, the man with the shield. In his stead was a furious, bloodthirsty King. What had he given up, to force Agamemnon to accept the terms of the bargain?
Even as Alvara studied the change in him, she didn’t flinch. Eyes resolute, she stared him down. “Now.”
Adrastos sneered, but Agamemnon met her steadfast stare, his tan clothes still stained with the splatter of her blood, and turned behind them. He disappeared behind the row of bodies and smoking tree stumps. A ripple went down their line, and slowly, they began crashing their swords against their shields. Like a war drum, meant to intimidate us. The souls didn’t waver.
Somewhere behind their line, someone was screaming. At first a woman, and then two muffled male tones, followed by a chorus of jeers. My stomach twisted.
When Agamemnon returned, only a few heartbeats later, Layla was dangling in the air, suspended by his brute hand on her throat. Her feeble nails clawed at his arm and her feet thrashed.
“No!” I roared, lunging forward. “You agreed they’d be unharmed!”
The giant gave a bone chilling laugh as he threw her to the ground. The sickening crack of skin and bone colliding with earth cut through the dead world. She clung to the charred grass, heaving for air. And still the war drum thundered against their shields. Again. Again. Again.
One slender hand came to her throat, as though she could urge the air back through with her touch. Coughing, she spat blood at the monster’s feet. He kicked her slight waist, and she heaved over with the blow. Something within me broke. I had done this. Brought this upon her.
“Enough!” Aren boomed.
But the souls were done watching.
SIXTY-SIX
DEATH DANCE
ALVARA
A great metallic crash split the world in two as the forces collided. The Renown roared as our arrows rained down, so thick they blotted out the sunlight filtering through the storm clouds. In a blur, Agamemnon threw Layla over his shoulder, and heaved her across their line. Her hoarse scream reverberated in my skull, and the weight of it was shattering.
Line after line of the giants crumbled under our arrows as our swordsmen charged forward in a tight, ancient formation of muscle and shields, led by Aren, August, and Ansel. The tightly woven advance rendered the opposing archers nearly obsolete, our leaders immediately dispelling any who broke through the wall, with Lana quick to jump in their wake, and even faster to slice down the few men that made it past them.
Again and again, I loosed my arrows, praying and willing each to fly true. They did. Even as our warriors rushed by us, as fierce as a river over rapids in the belly of the ravine behind us.
Instinct pulled me to the earth, twisting, as an arrow barely scraped past my face. The warm bead of blood across my cheekbone was like a jolt, the sour, metallic tang filling the air around us.
* * *
The left flank crumbled.Within an hour of that initial volley, it broke. Like the canyon edge eroding into the water below, it fell to pieces under the unending assault of The Renown. Aren, a moving boulder of muscle and fury, barreled down on the gap as the warriors forced through it.
Even over the roar of the battle, the crash of steel, his bellows to get back in line rained over us.
Ansel, the living shadow that he was, was only heartbeats behind him, echoing his barked commands to hold the line, to get in formation, as though no time had passed since he’d commanded legions. Where he arrived, dark soldiers fell. Like smoke on the wind, Ansel moved with awe-inspiring precision. Alec beside me, we freed arrow after arrow, pushing back against the Renown poised to breach the left wing. It had been so long—centuries, at least, and lifetimes for many—since any of us had battled like this, without elements or firearms, tucked in tight formations, line after line.
The Renown spotted Ansel, unaware of the little phantom quietly cleaning up the mess in his wake. Spotted Ansel as he cut down his enemy in a dance of death, and they charged. He didn’t slow, didn’t yield. And from this distance, I couldn’t tell if any of the blood across that scaled suit was his own.
Arrow after arrow, we rained down his reinforcement. And one by one, we picked off those in the breach. Aren, like a boulder in the river, filled the gap in the dam. His death dance was less graceful than Ansel’s, but even more devastating as he claimed two, and three at a time, using their bodies like shields and weapons.
