Chapter 41

CHAPTER 41

FINN

A bucket of freezing water woke Finn, coughing and spluttering… and naked.

The events of the night surged back into his memory and, before he could catch his breath, another bucket of freezing water struck him, knocking all the air from his lungs again.

‘What did you think you were doing?' Roland roared at him.

Hands seized him, dragging him upright, and he almost wished they would just leave him there to die. Because anything would be better than facing his guardian right now.

Wren was gone.

Wren.

Great light, what had he done?

There had been more shouting, a lot more. He had no words of explanation, no excuses to give. Wren was gone, Roland had seen Elodie take her, and all that had been left was Finn unconscious on the floor of the girl's room.

Roland's daughter's room. The girl spirited away by the traitor queen, the love of Roland's life. And Finn had done nothing to stop them.

His life was over. Or it should have been over. But even though Roland was armed with Nightbreaker, the Grandmaster's sword, they had just dragged him back to the barracks, in full view of every curious eye peering out at the disruption to the quiet night, and thrown him into his room.

‘Get dressed,' said Anselm, not unkindly. Anselm never did anything unkindly. It wasn't in his nature. He was Finn's closest friend. Perhaps the only one left now. ‘He'll want to see you. There's every chance?—'

‘That he'll dismiss me,' Finn finished. ‘If I'm lucky that's all he does. He can't send me home, but there are some very secure prisons he has the keys to.'

‘Well, quite. What were you thinking? I mean, she's pretty Finn, but…' He scraped his hand through his hair. ‘What were you thinking?'

Finn had no answer for that.

Thinking? He hadn't been thinking, had he? She addled his brain and had done from the first. Wren just had to look at him and he was lost. That was the problem.

Alone in his room he dressed himself in the uniform that he suspected very shortly he would have no right at all to wear. He'd go back to being just another royal hostage and Roland, who had been a far better father than his own father could ever have been, would disown him entirely. He was a disgrace and he had disgraced the Grandmaster, Wren and everything the knights stood for.

Outside, thunder rolled through the night's sky. He heard the commotion before he realised what was happening. And then Anselm was back. He opened the door without hesitation.

‘Change of plan. You're needed. We're all needed.'

‘What's happening?'

‘We're under attack. Shadow kin, a veritable army of them. Move it, Finn. Every able-bodied man is called to arms. Even those in disgrace.'

Shadow kin? They had to be looking for Wren. Her light could drive them away, destroy them. So, naturally, they wanted to destroy her, especially now she was back with her father. They must have known somehow and massed together to destroy her before she could reach the Aurum.

Training took over. It was more than second nature; it was his first instinct. In the scramble to don armour and gather weapons, he saw Roland, grim-faced and still angry, handing out orders to all and sundry. But they faced something far worse than Finn's stupidity right now. Theirs was an argument for another day.

Argument, Finn thought. There was no argument. He'd betrayed Roland's trust. Even if he hadn't already suspected who Wren was, the moment he'd known for sure he should never have touched her. But by then it had been too late.

Logic told him he couldn't have fallen in love with her so quickly, but there was no other word for his feelings towards her. She was everything.

At least she wasn't here for this. Elodie would keep her safe, get her far away. And when Knightsford fell, there would be stories told about the last stand made there by the garrison, a handful of Paladins and those knights who never got to make their vows before the Aurum.

Because it would fall. He knew that.

Outside the walls, an ocean of shadow kin rose from the forest, from the depths of the darkwoods, more of them than had been seen since the last days of the war, when the Nox was destroyed and the world tore itself apart. They were coming for Knightsford, coming to take Wren.

It was a small comfort to know that Wren, his beautiful Wren, wasn't there.

Holding Knightsford for as long as possible would give her more time to get away, and he'd take as many of them with him as he could. That was all he could do for her now. Fight hard, die well. So be it.

Finn mounted the horse and joined his brothers-in-arms as the gates opened to let the knights out. Roland led them, followed by Yvain. Anselm fell in beside him. Finn lowered the faceguard of his helmet and drew his sword.

They waited in total silence for Roland's signal, and then, when it came, plunged out through the gates to meet the tide of darkness that roared out of the night.

Battle raged around him and, the next thing he knew, he was deep in its heart. The enchanted blades shimmered with the Aurum's light as they tore through the shadow kin and sent them screaming back into smoke and shades. But the shadows were many and, in the darkness of the clouded night, they were at their most powerful.

The knights flanking him fell back, but he pushed on, determined to keep up with Roland who had charged right into the thick of things, as usual. His guardian had always led from the front, even when he shouldn't. Not as Grandmaster.

But no one could inspire men like Roland de Silvius. His soldiers were devoted to him, because he always protected them. And Finn was no different. Roland had always protected him, even when no one else would. Roland might hate him now, and Finn could hardly blame him, but that didn't mean Finn didn't have his back.

A wall of darkness rose around Roland's white horse and for a moment Finn lost sight of him. He pushed forward again, calling on the great light and the Aurum for protection. Deep inside him something answered. As he charged into the darkest part of the battle, the light with which Wren had healed him surged up again. It blazed along his veins and burst out into the night, illuminating the nightmares into which he rode. Shadow kin recoiled from him, screaming, and his blade made lines of fire through the air, banishing them with something even brighter than the blessings laid on the other knights' weapons.

Roland's horse was down, shadow kin feasting on it, and for a moment Finn thought his heart had stopped. But then he saw the armoured figure stagger to his feet, Nightbreaker still in one hand and a knife in the other. Roland had lost his helmet but he was still fighting. Finn reached his side just in time to drive back the biggest of the monsters bearing down on him, circling around his guardian and using his own mount as a shield.

He reached down and pulled Roland up behind him. The Grandmaster was bleeding from numerous wounds but nothing took out Roland de Silvius. He nodded to Finn and gritted his teeth, holding on with one hand while still brandishing Nightbreaker to defend them both now. Finn turned his horse's head back towards the bulk of the knights. Safety in numbers, he reasoned. But even as he dug his heels in and the poor creature carrying two of them in armour strained to take them to relative safety, something closed around his body, something dark and strong, so much more powerful than any shadow kin he'd ever faced.

‘Finn!' Roland shouted, as he was dragged off into the mass of shadow kin. Tendrils wrapped around him. Not vines this time, not unless vines were larger than a warrior's forearm and could crush bone. Tentacles bound his legs tight and closed over his face, smothering him. He felt Roland's hand close on his arm, desperate for purchase against the armour and finding none. Grabbing the gauntlet, he tried to cling to Roland but the force surrounding him was too powerful. It ripped them apart. The horse went over screaming and kicking, Roland somewhere underneath it, and even as he called out his guardian's name, Finn felt the light blazing in him give way to something else. Something dark and terrible like a poison rushing along his veins from the place where the shadow kin had bitten him. Here, in the embrace of its family, he didn't stand a chance. Everything dark and endless, all the rage and all the madness roiled up inside him, pushing reason and light aside.

He lost himself inside it and all that was good and light, all that he valued and cherished within himself, burned away to ashes.