Chapter 22

T he city of Easteria was surrounded on all sides by an imposing city wall. The wall offered protection to the capital city and castle, but was in no way unscalable. As I climbed the rampart steps I quickly realized Zander was correct; as soon as the army arrived they’d have the numbers to overwhelm our forces and breach the first line of defense.

The first enemy troops were spotted coming from the west, from the direction of the Midlands, so the captains and I diverted the majority of the army to the western-facing rampart. But since the city could be attacked from any side, we still assigned guards along the northern, eastern, and southern walls as well.

I would be the first to say that I didn’t have any battle experience, but I was well read. I’d spent countless hours back in Faerie reading of different wars and battles throughout our history and I knew that attacking us head-on could possibly be a diversion. I didn’t know the opposing rebel army, but I wasn’t about to leave parts of the city exposed. These rebels might be trying to distract us with a battle in one area only to slip in the back when we weren’t looking.

When I reached the top of the city wall, more than one set of eyebrows rose. I was decked out in full armor, just like all of the other troops. Dawn had left me her armor, but I was shorter and more petite than her, so not everything fit perfectly. I used which pieces I could, and then some of the guards helped me find the rest. I think that they dug out some children’s training armor, which perhaps wasn’t the best, but I would make do.

One of the captains named Thierry rushed up to me, concern heavy in his gaze. “Milady, you shouldn’t be here. Please go back to the castle where it’s safe. This is no place for a lady.”

He tried to shoo me back down the stairs, but I held my ground, tilting my chin up to look down my nose at him, even though he was at least a foot taller than me.

“If Lord Stryker was well, would he be cowering in the castle at such a time as this?” I asked, putting steel into my voice.

Captain Thierry stopped trying to get me to move. He looked at me with a hint of weary respect. “No, milady. He’d be right here with the rest of his men.”

“Exactly,” I said. “So this is where I will remain.” I moved past the captain and through the troops until I reached the ledge and could look out over what would soon become the battleground.

The sky was only starting to lighten. The rebel troops had been spotted late last night, the light from their lanterns dotting the horizon line, but they’d stopped and now remained in the distance, just out of our archers’ range.

Our best guess was that they were waiting for the early morning hours to attack when the light would show them their target. The anticipation of knowing the battle was coming with nothing left to do but wait, turned my stomach to knots.

I was careful not to let my anxiety show on my face as I strained my eyes to see the line of rebels in the distance. I was determined to be strong for our troops, just like I knew Stryker would be if he were here. In the face of almost certain failure, these brave men deserved that much, at least. To see me facing the same fate as they did. To look death straight in the eye and dare it to come for us.

I don’t know when exactly I’d started to consider Stryker’s people my own. But it happened, and here I was, willing to die for them.

An eerie sort of silence fell over our troops as we waited. I sensed someone come up beside me and looked over to see Stryker’s head captain, an unseelie named Greylocke. Greylocke had tawny skin and yellow eyes. A pair of leathery wings sprouted from his back and his feet were hooved. He said he’d been part of the Eastern Army for more than three decades, serving under previous lords before Stryker. The layers of scars on one side of his face and neck, as well as his exposed hands, said that this would not be the first battle he’d seen. I was thankful for his experience at a moment such as this.

“It won’t be long now,” he said, his gaze fastened on the rebels.

“Have any other troops been spotted from the other walls?” I asked.

He pressed his lips into a hard line, but shook his head. The look on his face didn’t lighten though, and I knew he was as concerned as I was about fighting this battle on multiple fronts. We didn’t have the troops to hold all four walls. But for now, we could only hope our fears wouldn’t come to fruition.

It was just as the first ray of sun crested the hill that a battle cry rose in the distance, piercing the silence. As if moving as one, a line of rebel soldiers started marching forward. The footfalls of so many striking the ground sent a small vibration through the rampart wall. I could practically feel the fear of the soldiers around me as they saw what we were up against.

“This is suicide,” someone yelled and I craned my neck to the side to see who had spoken. A middle-aged seelie fae had broken ranks and was backing away from his position. “There are too many! We’ll all be killed!” he screamed frantically, stirring up the already frightened troops.

“Silence,” Captain Greylocke shouted at the fae. “Get back in line. Your family is depending on it.”

“We should concede now before it’s too late,” someone else cried and I looked to see another one of our men turn and try to run for the steps.

To the left and right of me the troop’s faces showed their fear. A few more started to back up as the rebels’ battle cry grew louder. If I didn’t do something, this was going to spiral out of control. Already soldiers had started to drop their weapons and break ranks.

I’ve never tried to stretch my powers over so many, but digging deep, I reached inside and gathered my magic, and then sent it out over our troops, pushing calm and peace into as many as possible. I specifically targeted the two that had started yelling and trying to flee. Immediately their bodies sagged in relief and they grew silent.

The murmurs that had begun to circulate throughout the rest of the troops also ceased. Soldiers picked up their discarded weapons and fell back into line.

With the troops calmed, I slowly pulled my influence from them. It wouldn’t be fair to let them go into battle with a false sense of peace and security. They needed to be sharp, and sometimes fear is what gave that to them. I wouldn’t take their autonomy away from them at a time such as this. I wanted them to fight with me. Needed them to. But I wouldn’t force them.

When I’d pulled all of my magic back, there was still a heightened sense of alarm hanging in the air, but no one was bolting.

“You can do this! We must stand as one,” I yelled, raising my voice as loud as possible so that it would carry far. “For your lord, and for your kingdom!”

“For lord and kingdom,” someone shouted and then the rest of the troops started banging their shields and stomping their feet until the enemies’ battle cry was drowned out.

The rebel army was almost within striking range. The plan was to take out as many as we could with arrows. We didn’t have the numbers, but we had the high ground, and that counted for something.

Captain Greylocke pulled his blade and then raised it into the air and our troops stilled.

He looked down on me and said, “On your mark.”

Shock froze my tongue. In fae battles, the ruler always led his or her troops into battle. If Stryker had been here, Captain Greylocke would have deferred to him, but since the Eastern lord wasn’t here, he was letting me take the lead.

This wasn’t a small thing. This act showed the entire army that I was in charge.

A ball of barbed wire formed in my gut.

Who was I to lead an Ethereum army? I was just a princess of Faerie. A stranger in a foreign land. But the way Captain Greylocke looked down at me gave me the confidence I needed.

If the last several weeks proved anything, it was that I wasn’t just a princess. I was a survivor. I was a champion. I was a warrior, and it was about time I acted like it.

Stryker was counting on me. I wouldn’t let him down.

Nodding once to Captain Greylocke, I faced west, cupped my hands around my mouth and screamed, “Archers, ready your bows!”

To my left and right arrows nocked and bows tilted up. “Aim for under the arms and their necks,” I said, reminding them of their opponents’ weak points. “If they are flying, shoot through their wings!”

I watched the approaching army. The ground shook beneath their feet as they pounded toward us. I lifted an arm, signaling that they were nearing the mark. Every second that passed my heart beat stronger than the next, but I knew I needed to wait until just the right moment. We had to take out as many of the rebels as we could in this initial round. And we wouldn’t get a second chance.

The rebels were now close enough that I could make out some of their features. It was clear that unseelie outnumbered seelie in their army at least three to one. The only reason that made me nervous was because I wasn’t versed in all the magic of the unseelie, and also that could mean they had a good number of troops who could fly. The flyers would have the easiest time breaching our walls.

The first fae finally crossed the marker in the field in front of us that told me they were in our archers’ range. I counted a couple more seconds to make sure a good number of them were in range, and then screamed, “Fire!” At the same time I dropped my arm.

A spray of arrows shot into the sky, muting the sun’s rays for a few seconds as they soared through the air before plummeting back down to the ground. Death cries rang out as our arrows found purchase in the enemies’ flesh.

The battle had begun.

The first three rows of rebels fell dead, which caused a clog of five rows back to stumble over them. Relief rushed through me that we had bought time to reload.

“Reload!” I screamed.

By the time the rebels had crawled over and trampled the dead, our archers were ready for another round.

“Fire at will!” I announced.

Another onslaught of arrows loosed, some of them dipped in oil and lit on fire and I grinned as they hit their mark.

“They’re splitting. I’m going to the north wall,” Captain Greylocke said, running along the top of the wall, leaping over the crouched legs of our bowmen.

He was right. The rebels splintered off and created a V formation as they moved to our north wall.

No. This was what I feared. Fighting on all sides.

The bow men rained another set of arrows and that’s when I saw something blurry in the sky coming for us.

“Take cover!” I shouted and ducked behind the stone barricade.

An iron ball that had been shot from a catapult soared over our heads and crashed into the center of town, taking out a thatched home.

When I popped back up, dizziness washed over me. They were on us. Already crawling on the shoulders of the men in front of them and climbing the wall.

No way. We were not going out like that. Not this quickly. We’d barely just begun the fighting.

“Pour the fire!” I commanded.

Buckets of oil, alcohol and anything flammable we had were poured on the men and then they were ignited with a fiery arrow. It was a horrible way to die but I told myself it was just what happened in war.

Two flying unseelie tried to breech the wall but our archers took them down quickly.

I breathed a sigh of relief. We were holding our own. I heard shouts of command from the two walls to my left and right and prayed they were holding up as well.

“Low on arrows!” one archer said. “Low on arrows!” another called back, until one by one I was informed that we were running out of supplies to keep up the fight.

We’d been at this maybe thirty minutes. Was that all the history books would say about Stryker’s kingdom? Easteria fought in the great battle of the rebels for a whole half-hour before they succumbed.

No. Not on my watch.

“I’m out!” an archer yelled after loosing his last arrow. “Out, out, out,” rang across the northern wall.

“We should surrender!” someone screamed.

“Hold your positions!” I shouted to the men. “I’m going to use my power.”

I wanted to warn them because if I pulled this off, what they were about to see would be very disturbing with no context.

Taking in a deep breath, I felt for my magic. It was like a river, a current that ran right through me and I changed the shape and contents of the water depending on the emotion or thoughts I wanted to use to influence the person or people. The fae coming at me had every intention of killing me and Stryker so I broke my own rule …

I needed the rebels to come unhinged, to drive them to insanity so that they would be easy to defeat. Gathering my magic, I pushed paranoia and extreme anxiety out into the throngs of people rushing up the wall and you could see the moment it hit them. Their faces contorted and they began to peer over their shoulders with wide eyes. Then a few of them dropped to the ground, grabbing their faces. They screamed, scratching at their own skin and running off away from the castle.

I flicked my gaze to Captain Thierry who now stood beside me. He appeared a mixture of horrified and proud. I was slightly alarmed myself, but this was war and I wasn’t about to allow the innocent people of Easteria to die.

I ran to the north wall where Captain Greylocke slashed out at a rebel fae attempting to climb up over the top, and I did the same thing. I pushed pure paranoia laced with anxiety and fear into the first few rows of soldiers. It was like a ball of the worst emotions a person could experience, and even though I was doing this to help our people, my heart ached with regret.

A strong hand came over my shoulder. “You’re saving countless lives, don’t feel shame about that,” Captain Greylocke said. He must have read my expression.

“East wall needs help!” one of the soldiers near me called.

I ran that way, stumbling over the legs of the men crouched and reached the wall just as the first line of men came over.

My chest heaved with all the running, but I shoved my own discomfort aside.

I pushed my power into the rebels, this time focusing just on fear, which I hoped would cause them to flee.

It worked.

The men screamed, running away and scrambling down the wall as if they’d seen a ghost.

“Lady Aribella!” someone screamed from beside me. “The north wall needs you again!”

I sprinted to reach them, my lungs burning and heart feeling like it was going to burst from my chest. This was a large city and sprinting across the tops of walls during a battle was not ideal. As I appeared, a new set of men had reached the top.

I used my power on them, fear and paranoia sending them fleeing in droves.

And so this went for hours, until the sun was low in the sky, resting just above the horizon. I ran from wall to wall blanketing the rebels with my power, never taking it back. I ignored the frantic beat of my heart, the burning in my limbs, the sweat dripping from my face and chest from running wall to wall, and the pounding in my head. None of that mattered because we were holding our own against a ten-thousand-strong army, sending hundreds of men fleeing in all directions.

It was nothing short of a miracle that I didn’t pass out.

“Lady Aribella!” Captain Greylocke grasped my shoulders and forced me to look at him.

Why did he look so horrified?

Some wetness trickled from my nose and I reached up to touch it only to come back with blood.

“My lady, you have fought with honor. But you need to rest. You can’t do this all day and night.”

I yanked my shoulders from his grasp. “I can and I will,” I snapped, tripping over my own feet and catching myself at the last second by gripping the wall.

“At least have some water, some dried fruits.” He handed me a canteen.

“North wall needs help!” a soldier cried and I ran to them, plugging my nose and keeping my head tilted back in an effort to stop the bleeding.

I’d always wondered if there was a limit to my power. I guessed today I would find out.

I reached for my magic and whimpered when I didn’t feel it there. The river had run dry and now I grasped at nothing.

My magic seemed to work in such a way that I sent it out, but eventually I pulled it back or it came back to me over time. Since it was still on the enemy troops that had fled, I found that I didn’t have any more power to pour over the rebels that were still advancing. So I reached out and started to pull back the magic I’d sent out, and I felt the river fill within me until it was roaring.

I sucked in a cleansing breath, ready to take down more rebels when another iron ball sailed over my head and toward the castle Stryker currently lay in. I could only pray it didn’t harm him as I pressed on with a battle cry.