She smiled, matching his bow, until a flash of concern turned her expression into a frown. “Wait. Do you hear that?”
“No, but I wasn’t blessed with demonic hearing.”
Her cheeks lost their color, and her single, functioning pupil shrank to the size of a pin.
Sikras cocked his head. “Helspira? What is it?”
A distant scream broke out from somewhere outside.
The nearby window, a portal to the goings on outdoors, lit with a glow of oranges and yellows. An explosion rumbled the ground, rattled the walls.
In unison, the pair turned to behold thick plumes of smoke choking the night sky beyond the glass.
“B’yehnz,” Helspira whispered. “We’re under attack.”
Chapter Six
Helspira
HELSPIRA’S EARDRUMSthrobbed from the countless voices of Red Sentinels gathered in the armory. Through the windows, through the smoke, they had confirmed the presence of a small, undead army accompanied by living soldiers. Vessik’s influence had spread to Vinepool, no doubt about it.
Some units had already donned their armor, gathered their weapons, and bolted into the fray outside. Banneret Rowan did not move as hastily; a hushed conversation shared between him and Queen Saelihn had delayed him. Helspira tried in vain to hear them over the chaos of readying soldiers. She managed to decipher bits and pieces.
Rowan questioned Catseye’s usefulness, begged the queen not to saddle him with ‘that hopeless necromancer.’
Queen Saelihn said something about not making the same mistake he had made in the Grand Hall.
Everything became harder to hear after that, lost to rattling chainmail and clanking metal.
Delayed compliance dulled Rowan’s voice, and Helspira heard him relent with a defeated, “Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Good,” the queen said, nostrils flaring. “Swiftly now, my people need aid.”
Helspira watched the queen scurry up the stairs, presumably to gather the remaining staff and take cover. She gripped the hilt of her sword and steeled herself. This wasn’t the first time she had faced off with Vessik’s undead since joining the Red Sentinel. They had been relatively easy to suppress in the past, and she had survived far worse skirmishes in Chthonia, but the energy in the room left an unsettling feeling in her stomach.
Catseye’s voice belied the stark contrast to the frenzy, too calm and detached given the situation.
