A thunderous cry answered him as a line of his warriors shot forward. Van threw his head back with a howl, a mad laugh leaving him.
"See you on the other side," he shouted at Caden as he and his horse charged the enemy.
Caden controlled Nell's instinct to follow. "Archers—nock arrows."
The spearmen lowered their spears toward the enemy as the archers behind them set arrows to strings.
"Archers—draw."
The sound of bows being drawn came and the air seemed to tremble under the Trateri's anticipation.
"Loose!"
A volley of arrows flew over the heads of Van and his men, the sound of their passage quiet yet oddly loud despite the clamor of the battle.
Bodies fell as arrows found their mark.
"Again," Caden shouted as the men and women around him followed their training, resetting. "Loose."
Another volley followed the first. Then there was no more time as Van's charge got too close to the enemy's ranks.
The two forces collided with an audible crunch.
"Second wave of riders," Caden called, the Trateri already preparing for his command. "Follow me."
Nell surged forward, taking the lead as the spear men broke into a sprint, the rest following in their wake.
The moments passed in a chaotic blur as Caden cut his way through enemy ranks.
Blood flew, his arm eventually growing tired. At one point he found himself on the ground, fighting his way forward.
Finally, he spotted Van in the pandemonium, the Lion Clan leader's face a mask of gore.
"They just keep coming," Van told him.
"Then we'll keep cutting them down."
Caden refused to call a retreat. There was no place to go. If they withdrew now, the enemy would hunt them through these hills, killing them off slowly.
They held here. To the last Trateri if need be.
Van nodded, the knowledge that they might not make it out of here on his face as he shifted his grip on his sword. "What a way to go."
Caden's smile was savage as he killed another.
"Look! Up there!"
The cry was repeated, and the tide of the battle shifted as those around them took note of the sky. Caden looked up, finding several shapes growing rapidly as they arrowed toward the ground.
Van paused in a beheading. "I'll be damned. It's the Kyren."
"Jason," Caden murmured, spotting the boy on the back of a sorrel-colored Kyren.
His gaze searched the rest of the Kyren, not finding the woman he loved.
Sebastian landed on an enemy close by, breaking his neck before trampling him under his feet.
"Where's Eva?" Caden shouted.
