Heir of Pendel (A Pandoran Novel, #4) (69 page)

"Second row, shields overhead!" I said. Our men came up from behind and raised their shields, protecting themselves and those of us along the front line from the arrows. The arrows dropped, pecking our shields and ricocheting on the ground. We fought on, pushing forward from behind our wall of shields.

I caught sight of Mercedes wielding her spear in a pinwheel of motion while thwarting attacks with a light shield. Her magic was strong, and more than once, I saw her throw back a dozen shadowguard with the wave of her hand. Such impressive power.

Mistress Dothrai chanted from the wall. Her arms spread wide, face tilted toward the sky as her words howled over the wind. Clouds swirled and thunder rolled, and a strange mist began seeping from the earth, not far from the main gate. The mist coiled and curled like serpents, stretching in fingers toward us.

"Del Can't!"

"I see it!"

As the mist neared, it coalesced into shapes, some hybrid of human and beast, made of oily fire and black smoke, with demonic faces that looked like the stuff of nightmares. Whatever Mistress Dothrai had summoned from the other side, I didn't think our weapons and magic would harm them. I counted at least a dozen barreling toward the battle, and they broke right through our shield wall. There was a whoosh of air followed by flames and heat, and Mistress Dothrai screamed.

Mistress Dothrai wildly tried putting out the dragon fire consuming her robes, but the shouting nearby drew my attention back to the battle at hand. Our shield wall had broken. The battle had turned into a single-combat melee. Shadowguard swarmed everywhere, swallowing us, drowning us in a sea of shimmering black, while demons ripped our men apart. Nexus blared horns above us, hosing the castle walls with fire, but we were completely overwhelmed. Daria couldn't get closer to help us, because we were too mixed with the shadowguard. This was exactly what we'd tried avoiding at all costs, because we didn't stand a chance against them like this. This war had been over before it'd even started.

No, I would not give up. I
could
not give up. Our plans had been upended, but we could not lose sight of our target. We had to get to Eris. It was our best and only chance.

"Launch the catapults!" I yelled to Mercedes.

She heard my call and glanced up once, pulling her spear out of the chest of a shadowguard. That guard did not shatter, and then I wondered how many humans fought against us. Mercedes nodded at me and pushed her way back, screaming orders in Saqai, and her men scrambled to load the catapults with burning rock.

Within minutes, flaming pitch-covered boulders sailed overhead, straight at the castle wall. Right where Lord Cethin now stood.

I cursed. Lord Cethin had survived. He stood before the approaching meteors, and, as each boulder neared, he shoved it aside with an invisible wall of force. Each boulder rebounded to the forest and the ground, setting both on fire.

"Well, those went over well!" Vera ducked from a punch, and then scissored her blades through her attacker's abdomen.

"
Technically
, they didn't go over at all, so…" Thaddeus said.

Vera was looking as if she might hit Thaddeus when Thaddeus chucked a knife right past her head. It plunged into the forehead of the shadowguard charging toward her. The shadowguard exploded into black shards and the knife fell to the ground. She looked angry, rather than relieved.

"Tran, I need you at the wall!" I yelled, then: "Mercedes, wait for Tran and give the order again!"

Mercedes readied her men at the catapults, while Tran moved along the edge of the battle, throwing shadowguard back with a mere flick of his hand. I didn't see Fleck, but I hoped he'd stayed back and out of sight. We should've left him at Rex Cross. More flaming boulders sailed overhead. Lord Cethin readied to knock them aside, but Tran countered, bolts of blue light shooting across space and straight at Lord Cethin. Lord Cethin deflected Tran's magic, but the move cost him defense of the wall.

An explosion sounded. Chunks of rock and rubble collapsed from the castle wall, and archers screamed as they tumbled over.

"Keep firing!" I yelled at Mercedes.

More and more rocks hit the wall while Lord Cethin fought Tran in a battle of light. I couldn't see Mistress Dothrai, and I still had no idea where Eris was. Come to think of it, I also hadn't caught sight of any of these supposed giants or barghests.

Tran shot a bolt of light directly at a new crack in the wall, compliments of the catapults. That part of the wall came crashing down. Men yelled and ran to get out of the way, but once the debris settled, more shadowguard poured out of the crack like water through a broken dam, and they brought giants and barghests with them.

"You know…eight thousand is a lot of people," Thaddeus panted beside me.

"We have to get to Eris!" I yelled.

"What do you think I'm doing? It's not like I'm"—Thaddeus kicked off a shadowguard—"picking callaberries!"

A Nord screamed nearby. One of the fire demons had stuck its flaming horns through his guts. With a vicious jerk of its head, it flung the Nord through the air. The Nord landed in a group of shadowguard and Geshians. I charged the demon with Flamebearer, and Flamebearer erupted in flames. The demon's eyes burned with hate and it snarled, gnashing black pointed teeth. I stabbed at it, but it slipped past Flamebearer, spun around and punched me square in the chest. I flew through the air and collided with frozen ground. My body ached everywhere, and suddenly all I felt was heat. My clothing was on fire.

Frantic, I rolled to put out the flames and jumped to my feet right as the demon charged like a bull. My sword burned brighter. The demon lunged and I stepped aside, wielding Flamebearer around me. The demon missed and I brought Flamebearer down on its hide. It wailed in fury and swung at me with its massive, burning claw. I ducked low, slicing through its torso. It shrieked, a horrible sound from another world, and then it vanished in a curl of smoke. For a moment, I stood there panting, my arms trembling from adrenaline. I wiped my brow and turned back to battle, and I found myself face to face with Lord Cethin Raoul. And Tran was nowhere to be seen.

Lord Cethin raised his hand and an invisible wall rammed into me, sending me flying back. I landed on my tailbone, hard. Pain shot up my spine and the force punched air from my lungs. I coughed and heaved, staggering to breathe, struggling to climb back to my feet when another wall hit me. This time I landed on my side—the side with my wounded arm. My arm burned with fire and I winced, each laceration throbbing. Lord Cethin noticed, and, though he stood a few yards away, somehow he squeezed harder on my arm.

I cried out in pain. It felt as if each seam were ripping open, one by one, warming with fresh blood.

"Fool," Lord Cethin hissed. "You actually thought you could destroy me."

He squeezed harder, and I bent over in pain, dropping Flamebearer.

I saw my father, cut clean across the neck, blood gurgling from his throat. I saw myself, sprawled on the floor before Eris in the main hall at the castle, bleeding from a deep wound in my chest. I was losing too much blood, and Daria watched, terrified. And then I saw…a city. A city, on Earth. San Francisco. The sight of the Golden Gate Bridge and Transamerica Pyramid was so unexpected and incongruous with the other images I almost didn't pay attention to the fact that the city itself burned and trembled with a massive earthquake. People screamed and ran, but they couldn't get away from Eris and his army. They couldn't get away from the magic, and they didn't know how to stop it.

Another squeeze on my arm brought me back to the present. I yelled through clenched teeth. It felt as though Lord Cethin were ripping my arm off. I had to move. If I didn't, his visions would kill me. I forced my lids open and caught sight of Flamebearer on the ground behind Lord Cethin. I couldn't get to it. With my good arm, I reached down to my boot to grab the dagger there, but another force wrapped tightly around that arm, too. I had nothing left to give. I was no match for Lord Cethin.

Lord Cethin screamed. The sound was so alien and terrifying, I forgot my pain and looked up. Lord Cethin bent backwards too far, and the hilt of a sword stuck out of his back. Myez stood a few yards away, his expression murderous.

Lord Cethin pulled the amalgamate sword from his back as I staggered to my feet, gasping, the pain in my arm now reduced to a dull ache.

"I should've killed you a long time ago," Lord Cethin hissed at Myez.

"No, it's your turn to die today," Myez growled. He yelled and charged Lord Cethin with a dagger.

Lord Cethin raised a hand. An invisible wall of force flew at Myez, but Myez waved it off with a similar wall. This surprised Lord Cethin, and me, but he tried again. Myez deflected this, too, still running straight at Lord Cethin. Back and forth, wall after invisible wall, the air crackling with energy and splitting electrons, and then Myez drove his dagger down on Lord Cethin. The two of them fought, metal clanging as their blades struck over and over again, Myez's fury driving him forward. Myez's fury driving Lord Cethin back.

"You can't defeat me," Lord Cethin said.

"I can and I will because I want it more." Harder and harder, Myez struck against Lord Cethin's blade, until he knocked it right out of his hands and into the air where Myez snatched it, holding both at Lord Cethin. "I've learned a few things since last time," Myez growled. There was a split second where time didn't move, and then Myez drove one blade after another into Lord Cethin's chest. "For Mara." Another stab. "For Shay." Another stab. "For Quinn." Another stab. "For me."

Lord Cethin fell to the ground on his back, his eyes no longer glowing brightly, but flickering like a light bulb about to burn out. And then Myez gasped and hunched forward, with a knife sticking out of his heart.

No…

"Myez!" I cried, rushing toward him.

His eyes widened in surprise as he toppled away from Lord Cethin, and Lord Cethin's body disintegrated into black smoke and dissipated into the air. I dropped to Myez's side, but it was too late.

Myez grabbed my hand in his as he stared straight up, wincing against the pain.

"I'm so sorry," I said. "I should've helped—"

"No…no." He grunted. "Tell Daria…tell her thank you for giving me another…chance at life. Tell her that…she saved me."

Before I could say a word, he stopped straining and his hand went slack in mine. I grit my teeth together and pressed his lids closed.

Anguish and fury twisted my insides. I had to get up and keep going. I knew it, but I didn't want to. I didn't want to just…leave him there. But the shadowguard were closing in again, now that Lord Cethin was gone. I stood and yelled as I ran to meet them, and I downed a dozen—including a giant—within two minutes.

"Del Can't!" Thaddeus yelled, and when I caught his eye, he pointed to the sky.

Gargons. They approached in a cloud from the south like a horde of enormous bats. My gaze darted to where Daria and Nexus were currently setting fire to archers along the walls.

She needed to get out of here. They could never take on so many. "
Daria
!" I screamed, hoping she could sense my fear for her as I fought against another shadowguard.

The gargons were getting closer—so close I could see about a handful of their pykan riders. The pykan in front wielded a ball of blue-tinged light in its hands. I felt the moment she noticed it, because her fear turned my stomach inside out. The bolt of light shot from the pykan's hands, aimed straight at Nexus and Daria. Nexus tilted at the last second, and the bolt slid beneath his wing. The pykan fired another bolt, and Nexus angled the other way. The bolt streaked over Nexus's body but caught the end of his tail. Nexus shrieked and I felt pain—through Daria. Another bolt of light streaked through the sky, but this one had come from Daria. The pykan evaded it easily, and the bolt hit the gargon behind him. The gargon shrieked and dropped from the sky, crashing through one of the castle's towers, right as the pykan fired another bolt and hit Nexus square in the chest.

46

DARIA

P
ain wrenched through my body. At first I'd thought I'd been hit but then I realized the pain wasn't mine. It belonged to Alex. Fear drowned out every other thought and I scanned the battlefield for him, remembering Gaia's warning. I thought he'd be hard to find in the sea of black—the shadowguard were everywhere. From this perspective, they swarmed the land like ants on an anthill. I was glad the others couldn't see how hopeless it all looked. And then I caught sight of a flaming sword.

Alex.

My relief was immediate. He was alive, crouched in a small, empty ring on the ground beside someone. Myez.

Oh, no. No, no, no, no…

A group of shadowguard and one giant closed in on Alex, but he attacked them in a whirl of fury. I'd never seen him move that fast in my entire life. He destroyed over a dozen shadowguard in under a minute, and the giant took him one more. But Myez…

My throat squeezed.

Movement to the north caught my eye. I looked up and just over the next hill, coming toward us, marched a line of men. No, an
army
. At least two thousand of them. Bronze glinted over the snow like autumn leaves.

"Nexus, who's that?"

Nexus bent his head to look.
Ah, so the Arborennian Lord has come.

My chest swelled with renewed hope, and then I noticed the cloud in the distance, due west of us. At first I thought it was a huge flock of birds, but then my perspective caught up to me and I realized they were much too large for birds. No, those were…

"Gargons." I gasped. There were so many! "Can you handle that many?"

Nexus hesitated, and I knew the answer.

Perhaps if the others were here, but on my own…

I silently cursed those self-righteous dragons.

"Then we need to take down as many as we can with us!" I yelled.

The gargons came fast, and the handful in front had pykan riders. Well, at least Alex would be getting some reinforcements soon. In the meantime, we had about a hundred gargons to hold off. Somehow…