Page 200 of War Queen
“We’re out of arrows.”
Mikael slowly nodded as one of his captains delivered the news. It had only been a matter of time. And still Rael came—unending waves of bodies.
“We’ll keep using the boulders,” Rahim said, “but we’re down to hand-to-hand fighting to hold from a breach where the boulders don’t reach.”
“How many men have we lost?”
“Over a thousand now. We’ve taken nearly ten times that of the enemy, but it hasn’t seemed to have fazed them.”
Mikael searched his mind for additional options.
“Salar,” Rahim said, “please. Take the tunnel, fall back. We’ll hold them here, distract them.”
Mikael reached out and clasped the captain’s shoulder. “No. I stay. We kill as many as we can and give the lord commander the best chance to defeat them when he comes.” Hewouldcome. Mikael didn’t know what had happened with Aleon. But if Kharav fell, Soren and the Mercian army might be the only thing that remained between Rael and the North—between Cyrus and Salara. Mikael would give Soren the best chance he could.
A bell rang out.
A warning bell.
Something was wrong.
Mikael and Rahim ran along the walls of the stronghold, looking down at the attacking Raelean army. They were still coming strong but hadn’t yet breached. Still the Kharavian soldiers held.
The bell came again, and Mikael looked at Rahim in confusion. “Where is it coming from? Rael hasn’t breached the outside.”
Rahim shook his head, then he stopped and his face paled. “Not an outside breach. One within.”
Mikael’s pulse thrummed. A breach within. Which could only mean… the tunnel.Curse the North gods, the Blood King’s army had found the tunnel.
They raced down the stairs, deep into the stronghold, gathering men as they went. If the Raelean army breached through the tunnel, it would be over. Bahoul would be lost.
They reached the door of the tunnel where a half dozen Kharavian warriors stood with their blades drawn. Mikael pulled his own sword, ready. He cursed the North—the one door that hadn’t been replaced with Mercian steel. The Bear had kept one way to break in.
Behind it—the scrape of metal, the sounds of an army. He waited. When they broke through the door, he would attack with everything he had. He’d kill as many as he could. They all would. His only consolation: he wouldn’t die here. He’d seen the vision. He’d die outside. By Cyrus’s hand.
Until then, he’d fight. He clutched his sword tighter.
But it wasn’t the banging of a metal ram trying to break down the doors that they heard.
It was a key.
A key.
Mikael glanced at Rahim, and the captain glanced back at him, his own sword ready.
Then the door swung open.
It wasn’t the Raelean army looking back at him.
It was the eyes of someone he hadn’t expected to see again.
Katya.
“Salara sent a message, said you boys could use some help,” she said wryly as she stepped aside and Kharavian warriors poured out of the tunnel and into the stronghold.
It took a moment for him to fully understand what was happening. Then Mikael straightened, giving a chuckle laced with relief, and he sheathed his sword. The captain’s eyes smiled as she stepped in front of him. He reached out and clutched her shoulder, simply holding her. Grateful.
“Don’t get emotional, Salar.”
