Page 32 of War Queen
Soren rolled his eyes. “What are you doing here?” he asked her.
“What do you meanwhat am I doing here?How do you think you’re going to get in?”
“Across the bridge.”
“I thought you Shadowmen were smarter at this battle thing.”
Soren scowled at her.
“Come,” she called to them, and stepped through the door from which she’d come. Soren snorted—she was taking them through the tunnel.He glanced at Mikael, who looked back at him with the flat want of refusal written all over his face. But Soren gave him an encouraging nod, and they followed after.
She led them down a steep staircase, into darkness that was dark even for the Shadowmen. Their way was lit only by the lantern the old woman carried.
“Are you sure about this?” Mikael said quietly to Soren.
“The old woman’s annoying,” Soren said, “but she’s loyal to her granddaughter.”
“This annoying old woman can hear you,” she called out in front of them.
They poured into a larger tunnel, and she took them through a series of turns to a staircase leading upward, which Soren guessed came out somewhere in the main castle.
“This will bring you out inside the temple,” she told them. “It’s as close as I can get you to the bridge.”
“Where’s the Bear?” Mikael asked.
“He waits by the keep, at the north end, where the council will seek refuge when the battle starts.”
The Bear was alive. A small wave a relief passed through Soren, and he thought he might have seen the same from Mikael. Likely not. But maybe.
“He plans to cut them off?” Mikael asked.
The old woman nodded in the lantern light. “But the mercenaries will be with them. It won’t be an easy task.”
Mikael looked at Soren. “I’ll take half the men, clear the bridge for our army to enter. You join the Bear.”
Soren nodded.
“There’s a young girl, Norah’s cousin, Evangeline,” the grandmother told them. “She’s a pawn in all of this. She’s not to be harmed. Do you understand?”
Mikael nodded.
“But the council—show them no mercy,” she said. “I want them destroyed for what they have done.”
Soren snorted. “Do you not know who I am?”
And for the first time, the old woman smiled at him. “Then the gods go with you, Destroyer.”
Chapter ten
Sorenascendedthestaircasein the darkness, into the castle he’d dreamed of taking since he was a boy. But never had he imagined taking it in the name of the North Queen, who he was now sworn to, and never by the Bear’s side. Five hundred of his men followed behind him—men who had followed him into the hells of battle again and again. And they would yet again. Not all of them would make it through this night, and if they died, then they died for the North’s cause. Surely, they, too, had never dreamed this was their path, but still they followed him.
They silently spilled out into the darkness of the sleeping temple. Mikael split off and headed toward the bridge, taking Cohen and half their men with him, and Soren drove for the north side, toward the keep. He’d memorized the isle from his time before—every building, every structure, especially the keep—and knew exactly where he was going.
He thought about Mikael making his way toward the bridge, and he quickened his pace. He wanted to reach the Bear before—
Shouts rang out, and a horn sounded. The mercenaries knew they were there, and the night came alive.
Too late.
