What can three timberwings do against an entire army?
Nothing.
Except make them lookup.
So that with our distraction, they don’t see how the snow has shifted. How the snowy dune they passed has flattened out. They’ve become so focused on us they don’t notice how the top layer of snow has started to melt away.
Or that beneath it, the ground is actually riddled with lines.
Because while the fae may have the numbers, we have the land, and they have no way of knowing what I know.
I’ve spent a lot of time out here at this border…but so has my brother. Hundreds of trips over the years to thisveryspot.
To this piece of empty, frozen land where he’s poured out all of his pent-up power.
He’d loose his deathly magic right here, partly to deter people from traveling near Deadwell, partly to protect our border, and partly just because he had to expel his magic.
Which means the rot he’s dumped into the earth has accumulated. Decades’ worth of rot amassed within Fifth’s frozen soil.
The frigid cold and empty landscape has always helped hide it. And for the most part, the freeze has contained it.
Until now.
The fae can march upon us, but this isourground. And our ground isexactlywhat Finley and Maston will exploit.
Both of them have very unique powers—it’s why I picked them. Finley works in our armory as a blacksmith for a reason. His touch can melt metal straight through.
Or…heat an entire area of snow and ice that’s solidified my brother’s rot.
And Maston? He can cause the earth to shake with a single stomp of his foot.
The plan was simple. Wait for the fae to pass a certain point, and get Finley and Maston to that slope of snow. Because there, they’d have the cover to land at that dune, where one of the largest clusters of rotted veins lies in wait.
Right there, where Finley’s magic could melt through the icy ground just enough to free the trapped poison beneath. And then, Maston could tremble the earth to aggravate it.
To set itfree.
Because just like we practiced with the smallest strings of poison near Deadwell, you can rid the freeze and shake the rot loose.
Which is exactly what happens right now.
I flinch at the sound, my hands tightening on the reins. It’s like a stampede. Like thousands of timberwings blaring out an ear-splitting growl.
Then, the ground cracks.
Beneath the melting snow, the land suddenly splits open right beneath the middle of the rushing army. Instantly, hundreds of them fall in. Screams competing with the rumbling noises of the ground.
The melted snow reveals the thick brown and black veins running through it, and now that the land has cracked, it starts a chain reaction. Like yanking up the roots of a tree, it spreads, rupturing and gaping, filling the air with its deafening break.
From the sky, I pull Kitt around to watch as the snow shatters, splitting apart the panicking army, fracturing open and swallowing them whole.
My stomach leaps with a thrill. It’s working. My plan is actually fuckingworking.
I can’t help but grin as triumph pumps through my chest. Behind me, even Tyde lets out a cheer, breaking his usual quiet. “It’s working, Commander!”
Somewhere, I hear Gideon answer with another whoop and Lu laughing, the sound traveling through the frost.
We have a chance now, and I’m not going to waste it. The front lines of the army are rushing toward the iron trees, so we focus our timberwings on following them. Tyde looses more arrows, his sight magic helping him make killing shots.
