Chapter 43

Dravyn

The king was here.

My arrogant, fucking fool of a brother.

Here .

I'd caught his scent almost immediately after we'd settled onto our vantage point along the top of a cliff—one that overlooked the main encampment being established by a rapidly increasing number of human soldiers.

And now—after a minute of furious searching—I actually saw the idiot.

"Focus," Mairu urged. "Just because he's here doesn't mean he's going to be leading the charge into battle."

"I doubt he's here to surrender, either," Valas put in, earning himself a scowl from the Serpent Goddess.

I turned my back to both of them—and the bustling war camp—for a moment, doing my best to focus as Mairu insisted.

I had to.

There was too much at stake to think only of my brother, even though all I wanted to do in that moment was fly down and confront him.

Fucking idiot.

"There's movement in the trees at the Hollowlands' edge," Mairu said suddenly. "Lots of it."

I slowly turned back around, and the three of us watched those trees for several minutes, trying to gauge what kind of numbers we were up against.

We would use our magic to keep the humans and elves separated, biding time for Karys to accomplish whatever task Malaphar had appointed to her—that was our plan, in its simplest form. And it would be easier than keeping the two sides separated at Mindoth, I thought; there were fewer natural barriers to contend with, here—no raging sea, no underground caves.

Even so, something about the amount of movement in those trees was…unsettling.

"How many are there, Mai?"

She closed her eyes and breathed slowly in, slowly out, several times, feeling for the energies of the hidden bodies. She could usually pinpoint the auras of individual beings even in the largest of crowds, but…

Judging by her confused silence, there were too many here to easily estimate.

"That can't be right," she finally whispered, blinking her eyes open and narrowing them on the rustling trees once more.

A few human soldiers had ventured closer to inspect the movement, but nothing emerged to meet them.

Not yet.

"Worse numbers than we feared?" Valas guessed.

She didn't answer, but the horrified expression on her face said enough.

"You'd think we would have learned to assume the worst by now," Valas moaned. "Why am I such an eternal optimist? It honestly makes no sense."

While the Winter God continued to have a conversation with himself, I moved stealthily over the clifftop, getting a better view of that camp taking shape below us, sizing up their numbers as well as any potential strong or weak points.

There was another cliff like the one I stood on almost directly across from me. Together, they pinched in the land below and created a narrow passage that would be easier to defend. The majority of the camp was already behind this narrow point, save for a few smaller companies patrolling the areas closer to the Hollowlands.

Among those smaller companies, of course, was my fool of a brother.

Fallon was on horseback, trotting dangerously close to the Hollows and its hidden dangers. He sat tall and proud in the saddle, shouting commands, his voice occasionally rising into a booming rallying cry.

"We should funnel all of them back behind that narrow spot," Mai said, walking over to me even as she kept her eyes on the trees. "So they'll have to go around these cliffs to get to one another—which will slow both sides down, at least."

"My thoughts, exactly."

We wasted no time.

She went first, wings soundlessly unfolding and carrying her down the cliffside. She landed gently in the crook of a dead tree, just close enough to better see which soldiers were giving the orders.

Her magic could control every tiny twitch of a body—every breath, every heartbeat—but with so many to deal with, commanding each individual body would be difficult. So she merely took hold of the leaders among them and twisted their will into her own, guiding them into a hasty retreat toward safer ground. The rest of the crowd, I assumed, caught a subtle piece of her power as well—enough to help persuade them to follow those leaders without question.

Within minutes, they were all funneling toward the larger group, past the narrow passage, gathering a safer distance from the Hollows.

Mairu landed beside me once more, still guiding her targets with subtle movements of her hands.

Valas was perched on the opposite cliff, now, scanning the edge of the forest, plotting his next move. He waited until we signaled, then he leapt, taking on a form that was little more than a cold swirl of pale energy—one that blended almost seamlessly with the cliff face. As he shot away from that cliff, twisting and turning along the edge of the forest, a thick layer of ice overtook the ground he passed over.

I kept my human-like form for the moment, dropping with the brief aid of wings and landing close to the pinch-point between the two cliffs.

I pushed an invisible, searing wind toward the human's encampment, driving the last of the lingering soldiers more quickly toward it.

Once the area was clear, I sent ropes of flame out in a line across the narrowest part of the path. Then I built upon that line, creating a wall that neither elf nor human would be able to pass.

As the barrier began properly roaring with power and heat, I flew back to our higher vantage point, settling down on the very edge of the cliff to survey our work.

Ice covered the ground all along the Hollows' edge, which would make it nearly impossible for the elves to charge out with any sort of speed or control.

At that narrow point Mairu and I had agreed upon, my wall of fire continued to burn higher. I finished the job from where I now stood, filling in the weaker spots that this view allowed me to see.

But before the wall closed off completely, I caught sight of a small company of humans on the wrong side of my wall—the one group who had somehow escaped Mairu's hold.

My brother was leading them.

I leapt from the clifftop, wings flaring out behind me, curses flying from my mouth.

The ground shook as I landed before him, spooking his horse. He cut the reins sharply, preventing it from bolting, then jumped from the saddle to finish calming the beast.

He turned his glare on me once the horse was still. "Dravyn? What is the meaning of—"

" Fall back ," I growled at him, "get behind the wall I've built for you before you get yourself and everyone else in your company killed." As I spoke, I lifted a hand toward that wall of fire, parting a small section of it to allow him and the other remaining riders to pass through.

The shift in power and light made his horse skittish again. Fallon stumbled a few steps before managing a more commanding hold on it.

"I'm not retreating," he snapped.

"You won't win this battle. There are more enemies than you realize within those trees."

His expression—cold and angry, hard as steel—didn't change.

"I warned you of their numbers before. Why didn't you listen ?"

"It was this, or allow them to keep driving deeper and deeper into my kingdom, into my cities—"

"They don't want to lay siege to your cities. They were trying to lure you toward their own territory so they could draw you in and devour you here, where they're at their strongest—and you've fallen for it."

He blinked. Shifted his gaze to the ice-edged forest then back to me. Appraising. Considering my words, maybe.

But he said nothing.

I knew my brother well enough, even after all the things that had come between us. Knew he would never admit that he'd gotten this wrong.

How could he, when he had thousands of soldiers looking to him for leadership?

The wall of fire grew as my concern grew, the flames tumbling more violently, reflecting my increasingly fast heartbeats.

Fallon jerked his gaze toward the brightening, burgeoning wall. It stayed there for a long moment.

And as my brother stared at those flames almost longingly—as though he was thinking of sacrificing himself to their growing heat—I thought I finally understood something after all these years: The weight he carried as a king.

A king whose rule was, according to many, the only thing standing between the human territories and the rise of these elves who were building the foundations of a rebellious empire so close to his kingdom's border.

"Tell your soldiers the gods have chosen your side because you made the decision to bravely march forward and confront your enemies," I said, quieter. "That should help you save face."

He looked momentarily furious at the idea of needing to save face.

But it passed quickly, and the expression left behind was a confusing mixture of regret, stubbornness, and resolve.

Finally, he placed a hand on the saddle and prepared to leave.

I started to just let him go, but my mouth was moving again, words spilling out before I could stop them.

"You may have felt like you've been alone these years," I said as he hoisted himself up, "but I've had your palace wrapped in protective magic for years. Even if you couldn't see it. Or feel it. You are more than just a king . And I need you to fall back because I need you to survive this. Just so you know."

He adjusted the reins of his horse and turned it away from me—toward safety—without another word.

But he paused after only half a step.

Glancing over his shoulder, he said, "If their numbers are as great as you claim, then this isn't a battle you can likely win, either. Even as a god. They have weapons that can strike successfully against divine power—we saw them in Altis."

"Yes."

"So what can you possibly do against these monsters?"

"There are powers greater than any the middle-gods can wield. And things are in motion, now—they only need time to come to fruition. We only have to keep the situation from escalating beyond repair in the meantime."

His stone-faced glare returned.

"You just have to trust me," I told him.

Trust me .

The same words Karys had said. The words I'd been holding on to like a lifeline these past two days.

I did trust her.

But it was not a feeling I could easily explain to the skeptical king before me. And again, I knew what my stubborn brother was thinking.

Trust you? As I trusted you to negotiate a ceasefire?

But he said nothing.

Which was a kind of progress between us, maybe.

My brother and I were still caught in our quiet stalemate when a small explosion went off behind me.

I looked back to see powder raining down over a large swath of ground, landing upon the divine trap of ice Valas had laid.

Melting it.

The powder hissed as it hit the ice and ignited. Secondary, smaller explosions of violet-colored fog popped up all along the forest's edge.

The first line of elven warriors emerged through this fog, wearing masks of white, their clothing patterned like the pale grey trees they'd been hiding among. It created an eerie effect—their bodies being hidden by a combination of these patterns and the swirling fog, their movements only noticeable when one of their masks caught a bit of the overcast sunlight.

"These monsters won't be stopped," Fallon said through clenched teeth.

" Fall back !" I said again, giving his horse a swat on the hindquarters to get it moving. It lunged into a gallop—beyond ready to run by this point—and he didn't try to stop it. To my relief, he managed to direct it through the opening I'd created in my barrier.

I doubted he would retreat entirely. It would not be that easy. But at least he was out of my way for the moment.

Now I could focus on the growing disaster behind me.

After sealing off the wall of fire, I turned just in time to see another bomb landing against the glittering, ice-coated ground. Another explosion. Another blanket of dust landing upon Valas's ice, another series of explosions pop pop popping and filling the air with an even thicker layer of noxious fog.

The ghostly elven army advanced in earnest, now, their relatively silent movements adding to the overall haunting effect they created.

Some drove straight for the wall of fire I'd made, pulling more of their small bombs from the bags slung across their chests.

Other groups began splintering off, charging in opposite directions. They could go around the cliffs and converge from both directions—arguably a worse situation than all of them simply pouring straight forward. It would take them longer to accomplish it, but the end result…

Valas caught my attention, and we wordlessly coordinated our next moves, taking to the sky and heading off every group we could get in front of. Closing off paths with magic. Forcing them to waste their finite supply of magic-negating bombs. Slowing them down even further.

While we worked from above, Mairu's magic worked from hidden places alongside the moving army, sowing confusion and chaos into their ranks.

She focused on controlling the ones who carried the bomb-filled slings across their chests, forcing them to launch several of those bombs in wrong directions. Not only did this waste the weapons, but it also created several scuffles among the soldiers as they argued over orders not being followed.

Little by little, the composed, quiet, ghost-like lines began to break down.

Yet even as they did so, the situation continued to go from bad to worse.

Because their numbers simply kept increasing.

How could we possibly stop them all?

This emerging army, and the rest of it still hiding in the woods…most of this first wave had answered Andrel's command to assemble, to attack. Yet there was no telling who was loyal at their core, and who could be swayed back to a more reasonable position if given the chance.

And soon, the ones loyal to Savna would be secretly weaving their way into the fray as well, hopefully impossible to tell apart from the others until the moment came to reveal themselves. Maybe this was already happening.

So we couldn't unleash our true power—couldn't slaughter them indiscriminately.

But we had no time to be delicate , either.

I decided to focus on the ones directly attacking the barriers Valas and I were planting. I went back to the largest of those barriers—the first one I'd established—and took aim at the group currently trying to destroy it.

As they closed in on my wall of fire, so did I, sending a new line of flames lashing toward them. They scattered in all directions—but they didn't go far before gathering their courage and turning back to the fight.

Back and forth we went.

I kept driving them away until they were no longer close enough to throw their bombs at the wall—but this didn't entirely stop them; arrows flew next, with balls of exploding powder affixed to their heads. They cleared a smaller area, and with less force, but they struck faster and in more places at once.

Several flew uncomfortably close to me as well. I wasn't sure the effect that powder would have on my current form, but I wouldn't risk a repeat of what had happened in Mindoth.

I soared higher, out of range of the archers. From just above the top of the cliff, I continued to rain fire down upon them.

They grew bolder, several of them sacrificing themselves in order to get closer to the wall and destroy it, continuing to press on even as their fellow warriors caught fire and fell beside them.

And all the while, the numbers pouring from the Hollows kept increasing.

I tried to be strategic with my aim. Tried not to add any more than necessary to the already overpowering stench of blood and fire that filled the air.

When this strategy began to fail, I flew even higher—high enough to see the human encampment on the other side. I was considering landing on that other side, preparing them for the onslaught to come, when a strange sensation slammed through my chest and distracted me.

For several seconds, my vision blacked out.

I couldn't breathe.

Yet nothing had struck me.

It wasn't my own pain, but one I felt through the divine bond of my court. And the desperate cold that followed, it felt like—

"VALAS!"

With the sound of Mairu's sudden cry came a wild burst of her magic. That magic caught the trees in a merciless grip and bent them as if she had them between her fingers, snapping them as easily as twigs.

I veered sharply in mid-air, turning in the direction I'd last seen Valas, searching for the reason behind Mairu's scream—

There.

He was on the ground, barely visible behind a group of converging elven soldiers.

I raced toward him.

Mairu reached him first, touching down on the ground directly beside him and lifting her feral, furious gaze to the circling soldiers.

She struck out a hand. Her fingers bent at odd angles, curving like the talons of her dragon form, and then she closed them into a fist.

Even from where I stood, I could feel the rippling expanse of her power. Could hear the gasps of the soldiers as their hands flew to their throats, and the sound of their heartbeats stuttering to a stop.

They dropped as if their legs had been cut out from under them.

I landed seconds later, fire preceding my approach, encircling the three of us in a protective ring.

Valas did not move, even as the ring burned hotter. His chest had been slashed open, and what bits of skin I could see were already taking on a look similar to the wounds I'd sustained in Mindoth—except his looked much darker. Deeper.

I carefully started to gather him in my arms, preparing to carry him somewhere safer, somewhere less crowded.

"Leave me be," he moaned, struggling against my hold. "I'm fine."

"Be quiet," I snapped.

He actually listened.

Which was how I knew he was severely injured.

As I finally settled his disoriented self against me, he opened his eyes. They were disturbingly blank for a moment before they caught on something behind me and immediately widened in horror.

I couldn't help following his gaze.

The trees at my back were rustling again, shaking and swaying as if in the throes of a building earthquake.

The largest wave of elven warriors yet exploded from those trees seconds later, heading directly toward us.