Chapter 22

Karys

I raced outside, sprinting to the top of the hill that overlooked the main camp.

The chaos created by Valas had dispersed.

There were still people moving quickly about, but they exchanged nothing more than an occasional whisper, completely focused on organizing themselves with an unflinching resoluteness that was almost eerie.

Most of them were looking toward the east, where two figures loomed on an adjacent hilltop, looking down on them. These figures were the only ones speaking above a hushed tone. Calling out orders, it sounded like; I could make out their imposing voices, but individual words were difficult to decipher over the distance and the sound of my own pounding heart.

Who were they?

I started toward them to get a closer look, but an arm closed around my waist and pulled me backward.

I nearly cried out. Dravyn clamped his hand over my mouth before I could. I immediately recognized his scent along with his energy… I would have recognized him sooner, but something about those distant figures had me entirely too rattled to focus my senses.

Dravyn dragged me away from the tents and the camp, far away from the dark figures and everything else, waiting until we reached the cover of a shallow cave before he spoke.

"There are already more elves here than we expected. Mai's gone above to get a clearer picture of things." He cast a worried glance skyward.

I followed his lead, searching the moonlit clouds for flashing scales or other signs of her favored serpentine dragon form.

"They seem to be stealing their way in from all directions," Dravyn continued. "It looks like tonight is going to be more than just a small, strategic strike."

I settled my rattled nerves and told him what Cillian had said—though I still didn't understand what he'd meant by tonight being about more than just blowing things up. How much more? And what other rebels were coming?

Was Andrel here?

Was my sister here?

"What should we do?" I wondered aloud.

"Valas is already moving toward the outer defenses of Mindoth. Whatever the planned attack against this keep is, we're going to try and soften it. Maybe warn the humans who will listen. Hopefully, we can prevent a complete massacre."

I nodded, but I didn't follow him as he started toward what I presumed were those outer defenses. I was frozen, looking in the direction of Cillian's tent.

I don't know why.

What was I hoping for? That Cillian would come racing over the hill, begging me to stop, telling me he was sorry and that he wanted to find a way to secure peace after all?

I stared at my boots, feeling foolish for even letting such a thought enter my mind.

"Are you all right?" Dravyn asked, softly.

No.

I lifted my head and set off at a brisk pace. "Let's keep moving."

I could sense his concern—it settled like a second layer over my own thoughts—but he didn't ask for any more details. Later, maybe.

After we survived this night that was spiraling rapidly into our worst-imagined scenarios.

We raced through the forest, eventually making our way out of the trees and onto a plain covered in long, swaying grass that appeared pale blue in the moonlight.

Here, I got my first clear look at Mindoth's Keep in the distance.

With no trees or hills obscuring the view, I could see just how impressively wide its footprint sprawled. More buildings than I could count crowded the peninsula. High stone walls cut the compound off from the rest of the kingdom, their wide tops lined with torches and flags that fluttered in the humid breeze. The air smelled of salty sea and smoking chimneys. A warning bell was ringing somewhere deep within the heart of the training grounds, each of its echoing peals urging my pulse to skip a little faster.

I looked skyward again. This time, I caught a glimpse of gold weaving in-between the clouds.

Mairu shifted her scales to a mixture of pale amethyst and deep blue—blending better with the night sky above—as she descended to earth. The ground trembled as she touched down.

By the time we made our way over to her, she was sliding out of her dragon form and back into her humanoid one, though parts of her skin retained shimmering scales of purple and blue. Like armor. Like she was preparing for war, even though we'd all agreed to avoid it by any means necessary.

"We have a decision to make," she told us, frowning as she caught me staring at the beautiful patch of violet scales along her throat. "The situation is escalating beyond what we expected. If we intervene, we'll be committing to a bloody battle, it looks like."

Shades of fiery red flashed in my vision as Cillian's question whispered through my thoughts.

Whose side are you on?

I still wasn't sure what the right answer was.

I only knew I didn't want a bloody battle for either side.

"Can we focus on simply keeping them apart?" I wondered. "We could use magic to drive back the invasion. The main entry into Mindoth is relatively narrow, already cut off by high walls…if we help fortify it even further, maybe we can get the elves to turn around? At least for now."

"The tunnels underneath are still a vulnerability," Mai reminded me. "One that will be difficult to keep in check by any kind of barrier, magic or otherwise. There are too many entry-points, and we don't know how well the elves have mapped out the underground cave network. They may already be worming their way inside and planting weapons as we speak. Speaking of which, did you get anything useful out of Cillian?"

"He didn't deny that there were weapons planted, and more to come. He wouldn't tell me the number, though." I took a deep breath. It seemed to echo in my chest, like there was too much space inside of me—like my heart had finished the shriveling it had started in Cillian's tent. "Which makes me think that number is…high. He wouldn't try to hide it from me, otherwise."

She sighed, gaze lifting upward as if she was considering retreating back to the divine realm above.

"I believe we're beyond the point of not intervening in some way," Dravyn said, pointedly.

No one disagreed with this.

After a brief discussion, it was decided—Dravyn and I would try to at least reinforce the defenses of the main gates of Mindoth.

Meanwhile, Mai would find Valas, and the two of them would focus on sniffing out any weapons that had already been planted, as well as any smaller entry-points that had already been breached.

We wasted little time fussing over details beyond this.

Dravyn and I decided on a direct approach, strolling straight for the main entrance of the keep.

As we drew closer, I realized the outer wall was the first of many. More were stacked behind it, and each seemed to be a different height, length, and thickness. A maze of barriers with narrow corridors and gates in-between—so even if you managed to scale one wall, there was no telling what new challenge awaited you on the other side of it.

"Another wall—one of flame—could add to the frustration of trying to march into this place," I thought aloud.

Dravyn agreed, and we made our way to the outermost rampart with plans to create parallel barriers of magic in front of it.

That outer wall was actually made up of two stretches of stone with an elaborate metal gate between them. Both were wide enough to have multiple guards patrolling along their tops, and tall enough that staring up from the bottom strained my neck and made me dizzy.

Dravyn took the one to the left, summiting it with a running start, a few inhumanly powerful vertical strides, and the brief help of wings—flashes of fire-tinged feathers that were there one moment, gone the next.

As he disappeared from view, I scaled the outermost wall to the right, not with wings, but with a combination of my claws and my divine speed and strength. As I hurdled over the parapet and landed in a crouch, two guards immediately caught sight of me.

I straightened slowly, lifting my hands in a gesture of peace.

The one closest to me drew his sword.

My magic responded reflexively before I could even think of stopping it. Faint symbols glowed to life on my skin. Smoke and embers lifted from my pores. The torches all along the rooftop went out, their flames whisking toward me and swirling around my body.

In the suddenly darker surroundings, the fire building around me seemed even brighter, and the second guard—whose weapon remained in its sheath at his side—let out a gasp, blinking in disbelief.

"A divine being," he whispered, taking a step backward, his expression shifting to a mixture of awe and terror.

The sword-wielding man's eyes darted from his companion back to me, widening as if he was taking in the sight of me for the first time. He dropped his weapon and held up his hands.

Then both men knelt before me.

That's new.

It was also uncomfortable.

The one who'd dropped the sword fumbled with his sleeve, nervous fingers rolling it up to reveal a divine mark on his wrist—one that resembled a lightning bolt.

Wrong court , I thought wryly. But he was clearly hoping it would still gain him some kind of favor with me. Enough to keep me from smiting him, or whatever other horrible thing he imagined I was contemplating.

"I'm here to help," I assured him.

More gasps and trembling followed this pronouncement. The guards exchanged a wide-eyed look, clearly unable to believe I was actually speaking to them.

I didn't have time to deal with their unnecessary reverence on top of everything else.

"Leave the wall to me," I ordered, in what was hopefully a tone that rang with divine authority. "Move deeper into the training compound and bring the ones there a warning: There are enemies at your gates. More elves than I believe you're prepared for, coming from both over the ground and below it."

They hesitated only a moment before nodding. With his eyes downcast, the Storm-marked human spoke: "The gods show us favor by sending you to us in this hour of need, protecting us from the Fallen and wicked ones."

I was suddenly glad for his downcast gaze, as it meant he couldn't see me flinch at his last words.

Whose side are you on?

As the man chanced a quick glance up at me, I gave him a single, curt nod. He reacted as if I had promised to bless him and the rest of his bloodline for all eternity, his hands clasping together in prayer before he dropped into another bow along with his fellow guard.

I fought the urge to cringe. I waited until they had risen, hurried away, and fled down a nearby ladder, before I let any discomfort show.

A strange sense of power itched through my veins as I watched them disappear. A different sort of power than the one that came with controlling fire—and one I had no real interest in learning how to wield.

I thought again of my conversation with Cillian.

Have you already forgotten what it was like to live in this realm?

No human had ever bowed to an elf. Not even in the earliest days, when some of the most powerful elven houses were still clinging to some of their authority.

And contrary to what Cillian thought, I hadn't forgotten about the frustrating trips I used to take into human villages, desperate to find someone who would sell me the basic goods we needed to survive. Even on the rare occasions when I had plenty of coin to spend, the human merchants would take one look at my pointed ears and send me on my way with nothing but curses for my efforts.

My scarred face and clawed fingers often earned me even more violent reactions.

But the two guards hadn't seemed to notice any of those things. As soon as the divine fire appeared, they'd seen me as a higher being. One worthy of respect and awe.

"Fools," I muttered to no one.

I paced the top of the wall, letting the fire around me continue to build. Uncomfortable as I might have been with it, I still preferred pouring my energy into magic rather than thinking about those guards and their ridiculous worshipping.

When the flames around me became too large and wild to hold on to, I paused in the center of the wall. I picked two points on the ground below, then guided the flames between these points, stretching the inferno along my chosen path with steady, determined hands.

The two guards were still close—I heard them below me, in between the walls, shouting at their fellow soldiers. Telling them not to panic at the sight of the flames. Assuring them that the divine were here to help them.

And I was.

I wasn't going to go back on what I'd told them.

But how strange it felt to help, when I'd spent so many years cursing the gods for the lack of help they'd given me .

I wiped beads of sweat from my forehead and summoned even more flames, guiding them into the wall I'd created until it roared to a terrifying height. A blistering hot wind kicked up all around it, driving back anyone who dared to approach it.

It was eye-wateringly bright and uncomfortably hot, even to me. Even from a distance. I didn't care. I just kept building it brighter. Taller. It was fast becoming a compulsion. I couldn't stop adding to it because it was the only thing I felt in control of just then.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Dravyn's wall rising as well. I told myself I needed to build higher than even he could. I lost myself in the competition. Or tried to.

In truth, I was trying to find myself, to find something like solace and certainty in the flames I was creating—something that would make me feel like I was giving myself to the right cause. The right side.

I gave until I was out of breath. My head pounded. My chest ached. I made myself stay upright, narrowing my gaze on what little I could see of the other side of my fiery barricade.

Nothing there…at least, not that I could make out.

The voices directly below me had ceased as well, the guards having moved inward as I'd instructed them to. More and more followed them as I watched.

Good .

They could focus on dealing with any enemies who had already slipped inside or made their way into the tunnels. Dravyn and I could keep any more from attempting to breach the gates.

I breathed a sigh, glad to have a clear purpose and—

A terrifying rumble sounded from somewhere behind me.

I spun toward it, nearly losing my balance in the process.

It sounded far away, yet it was violent and powerful enough that the wall beneath me—and the ones behind me—trembled. A few tiny cracks appeared in them. The few remaining guards in the gatehouses rushed outside, surveying the damage.

Dravyn was by my side a minute later. I grabbed his arm, steadying myself as another tremor rocked the walls.

As soon as the shaking stopped, he took my hand. Together, we leapt to the second wall. Then the third. Then the fourth and still onward, racing from one to the next without stopping, dashing across their tops at an increasingly dizzying pace, occasionally aided by his wings.

Finally, we came to the last of the outer defenses—a short, narrow wall with sharp spikes all along its edge.

Just as we started to leap over this final barrier, another tremor shook the world, sending us pitching forward and nearly tumbling over the edge.

We caught ourselves and crouched in place, waiting for the shaking to subside.

It took a long time.

Long enough for us to get a good look at the spikes we still had to cross over, and see just how wickedly sharp they were.

And long enough to see that some of those spikes had severed elven heads impaled upon them.